The Mark of Athena
by nino21
Summary: How I see the beginning of the Mark of Athena.
1. Annabeth I

**Basically how I imagine the Mark of Athena should start like. Review. If I get enough reviews, I might continue the story.**

The anxiety in Annabeth threatened to drive her insane. For so long she has been waiting for this reunion and now that it was a few minutes away, she felt like hiding under her bed. The rest of the demigods learned to steer clear of her in this state, knowing that she could get quite violent if disturbed. Only one person on earth could calm her down now: Perseus Jackson, the seaweed brain, the person she spent eight months worrying and not sleeping for. She missed him more than she would like to admit to anyone, especially herself. She missed his sea green eyes and messy black hair, the way he smiled at her; she shook her head. If she kept thinking like that she would sound like a lovesick daughter of Aphrodite. She was going to kill Percy for putting her through all this; as if it was his fault.

" Landing in five minutes!" Leo announced, " I would suggest that you all hold tight while I land this baby. Supreme Commander out!" Piper rolled her eyes at Leo's jokes. He had gotten to everyone during this trip. He even got to Annabeth by pestering her with questions about Percy. Leo seriously admired him. Percy became his hero. That only caused Jason to worry more. He was worried ever since most of his memories returned. He would never admit it, but he was worried about Percy; he didn't want to be weaker than him. Jason was used to being a leader, having his orders followed but meeting Percy could change that. Percy never listened to anyone unless he felt like it. He was a free spirit and did whatever he felt was right. In a way his rebelliousness was one of the things Annabeth liked most about him. Suddenly she heard Jason gasp. She walked to the edge of the ship and saw what made him gasp. A miniature Rome, with a military camp.

" Camp Jupiter" Jason whispered, "I missed it."

Annabeth held her breath, the city was beautiful. Then she noticed the amount of people there: the city was full and there were at least two hundred armed Romans watching them warily from the camp as Leo landed the ship.

" Are you sure they wont attack us?" Piper asked Jason worried.

Jason glanced at the camp, " If the praetors ordered not to attack us, they wont. Romans never disobey orders. But if they didn't; lets just say we're in trouble. Hopefully they wont attack us when they see me."

Piper looked at him exasperated, " Well then get down there, Sparky!" she exclaimed. Jason looked offended for a moment but he got used to the nickname just as Percy got used to his. He smiled, hugged Piper and stepped forward.

" Annabeth, as camp leader you should come with me now." Annabeth nodded. Together she and Jason stepped of the ship and made their way towards the group of Romans. Annabeth scanned the crowd for Percy. The only person that stood out so far was a tall girl, wearing a white toga and a regal purple cloak. Obviously a leader, she had long black hair and piercing dark eyes. She seemed familiar but Annabeth couldn't place exactly where she remembered her from.

" Reyna" she heard Jason mutter. Then a new figure made its way through the group and came to stand next to Reyna. Annabeth froze and caught her breath: it was Percy.

Dressed similarly to Reyna, he stood tall and proud with an aura of power around him. Even Jason did not radiate that much power. Even though he was still some distance away, Annabeth studied his features and saw that he looked more serious, disciplined, roman. It was odd how much it hurt her to acknowledge that. Then she noticed that Jason looked surprised and worried at the same time, he seemed to have lost that façade of calm confidence he worked so hard to build.

" Is that guy, Percy Jackson?" he asked Annabeth. She nodded.

" They made him praetor." Jason said.

" The position you used to have?"

" Yes."

Eventually Annabeth and Jason reached the praetors. Finally Annabeth got a proper look at Percy, even though his demeanor was now roman, his eyes were still the sea green that she loved, filled with happiness at seeing her. At least he remembered her. That was a relief because who knows how many days she spent worrying about him forgetting her. The girl, Reyna regarded Jason for a moment before saying " Welcome back, Jason Grace, we missed you." At that moment the whole camp erupted into cheers, it was obvious that they missed they're leader. Leo, Piper and Thalia reached them at that moment while the rest of the Greeks were back on the ship. Reyna regarded Annabeth coldly,

" Welcome to Camp Jupiter greeks. I am Reyna, one of the praetors of the twelfth legion." Annabeth could not understand the reason behind her cold glare but she decided to introduce herself,

" I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, official architect of Olympus and leader at Camp Half- Blood."

Reyna then glanced at Percy, who was standing a bit aside as if waiting for his moment. Percy looked at her and they seemed to hold a silent conversation. It hurt Annabeth to look at that, to see him hold silent conversations with another girl, usually she was the one who he looked at like that. Reyna seemed to jerk her head forward and her expression softened and saddened at the same time. Percy smiled and turned to Annabeth.

" Hey Wise Girl, I missed you." That was all it took, this one sentence to make all her pent up feelings to explode and rise to the surface. She did not want to cry in front of the Romans but she could not seem to stop the tears of sadness, relief and anger from springing to her eyes. She went to Percy and hugged him and he hugged her back tightly while she let a few tears spill into his shoulder,

" Gods Seaweed Brain, I missed you so much." She whispered. Percy smiled down at her and only then did she realize how much he had grown.

" I never forgot you, you know? Even when Juno completely erased my memory I only remembered your name." At that Annabeth smiled and kissed him. The crowd, both Greek and roman, burst into cheers. When they broke apart, Annabeth punched him.

" Ow!" Percy exclaimed, " What was that for?"

" For leaving me for 8 months and not even bothering to call once! You call your mother and don't call me?" All the anger Annabeth felt came flowing. Percy raised his hands in surrender and smiled,

" I'll explain everything later, ok?"

" You better." Annabeth threatened. Then she took his hand and led him to where the others stood. She noticed how Percy's face went back to the roman version in the way, it seemed to become a part of his identity. Annabeth took a deep breath and led Percy to Jason. She was about to introduce two very powerful demigods and it was hard to determine how this went.

" Percy this is Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Jason this is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

Jason held out his hand and Percy took it. They stared at each other and their handshake was firm, like a testing of wills. They both looked away and released hands at the same time but Annabeth noticed Jason wince slightly after he flexed his hand. Percy smiled,

" Nice to meet you Jason, I heard a lot about you here."

" I've heard a lot about you back at camp as well. You're a legend." Jason said with respect in his voice.

" Well, I try." Percy said modestly. At the same time, Thalia tackled him into a hug.

" Nice one Percy, vanishing for 8 months and driving you girlfriend and friends mad with worry. You can add that to the "Stupid things I have done" list as well." She smirked at him when they let go.

Percy laughed, " You know, I haven't made that list yet, but if I do it will probably be rather long."

Then he looked at her with a puzzled expression for a second, like a realization dawned on him suddenly.

" Hold on, Grace, son of Jupiter and daughter of Zeus. Jason is your brother?" he asked Thalia.

She smiled, " Yup, my little brother." Jason grumbled under his breath about not being so little and Thalia laughed.

" You mean you had a brother and you never told me about that?" Percy demanded.

Thalia backtracked " Sorry Percy, I thought he was dead so I never wanted to talk about him. It hurt to much."

Percy glared at her for a moment with a look that clearly said "We'll talk about this later."

" Percy this is Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite and Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus." Annabeth introduced.

Piper smiled at Percy " Its nice to finally meet you, we've heard so much about you."

" Dude your totally awesome, you kicked the titans butts." Leo exclaimed and everyone laughed, even Percy. Reyna looked at Percy curiously, " Titans, as in multiple titans?"

" Yes, I fought Kronos, Hyperion, Atlas and Iapetus." The Romans all got astonished looks on their faces and looked at Percy with newfound respect.

" What else did you forget to tell me?" Reyna asked with a carefully controlled voice.

" Well, considering I've only been here a week and most of that time was spent on a quest, we didn't exactly have time to socialize." Percy pointed out.

Reyna stared at him for a moment and they seemed to hold another silent conversation.

" Meet me in the Principia once you have finished the introductions. Bring only those demigods vital to the quest." She said finally.

Percy snapped a military salute " Yes ma'am" and Reyna actually smiled. Annabeth felt that jealousy burning inside her again. Then she heard an angry voice yelling, " Praetors, we cannot trust the _graecus_, we must destroy them before they attack us!" A tall, thin, boy with sandy hair and blue eyes came into view, clutching a knife and a teddy bear.

Percy's eyes grew dark with anger, " Enough Octavian." He ordered in a powerful voice, " the greeks are not here to harm us. If they had wanted to do that they would have done so already. We will discuss your statements later."

Octavian just smirked " Remember your promise praetor. If something happens, you fight on our side and besides you swore on you life." Annabeth caught the meaning of the words and realized what a terrible predicament Percy would be in if they messed up. Jason must have understood it also because he paled considerably. Percy, however, still stood proud, defiant and angry, his eyes were dark. Annabeth realized the danger. If Percy started to argue with Ocatavian now, it could end badly. Apparently she was not the only one who realized that. Reyna glanced at Percy with a worried expression and turned to Octavian,

" Octavian, come with me. There is something we need to discuss."

Two people came to stand behind Percy, a tall, buff, baby-faced Chinese guy and a black girl with golden eyes and curly hair.

The buff guy looked at Percy with disapproval " You really should not let Octavian get to you like that." He said.

Percy sighed " I know, but one of these days Octavian is going to set me off. After that I cant vouch for his safety."

The girl looked panicked " You don't want him as an enemy."

Percy just smirked " I already have him as an enemy and the only place he's dangerous in is the senate. Once he's out of there he's just a powerless dork with an overlarge ego."

" True" Jason muttered and Percy smiled at him.

" Anyway" Percy continued and turned to Annabeth and the rest of the Greeks " I would like to introduce you guys to Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto and Frank Zhang, son of Mars, that's Hades and Ares in Greek."

The girl, Hazel, smiled at Annabeth, " Its nice to meet you Annabeth, we've heard so much about you."

Annabeth smiled at that " So you guys were here to save my boyfriends butt during the quest?"

They both laughed, Frank said " Your boyfriend was managing pretty well himself but we did help him out occasionally. He never stopped talking about you by the way." He added and laughed at Percy's expression.

Percy blushed and punched Frank " Shut it Zhang."

Frank snapped a military salute " Yes sir, Praetor." At that Percy groaned, and muttered that he knew that becoming Praetor was a stupid idea. Then he turned to Annabeth, " Where are the others?" he asked.

" Aboard the ship, they're waiting until its safe for them to come out."

Percy nodded, " Ok, you guys fetch the others while I go change out of this stupid toga and meet me by the fifth cohort barracks in fifteen minutes. Can you show them the way?" he asked Jason.

Jason nodded, " No problem, I'll bring everyone there, then we'll go to the principia together."

Percy smiled, " Good." Then he took Annabeths hand and started to walk away.

Annabeth studied him again, " You know Percy, you changed a lot here." She remarked.

Percy sighed, " I know but it would be very hard to survive here unless you began thinking like them to a certain extent. Becoming Praetor changed me even more, even though I did not want the position."

" How did you become Praetor in a week?" Annabeth asked curiously, " And if you were here a week, where were you before?"

Percy's face darkened with anger as he said " Hera put me to sleep for seven months. I woke up at the wolf house around a month ago and was trained as a roman by Lupa, that sent me on the path to this camp. I will tell about the rest of my quest when we meet in the Principia."

" I hate Hera" Annabeth muttered.

Together, she and Percy walked in silence until they reached a barrack that had "Fifth Cohort" written on it. Percy dashed inside and grabbed a pair of pants and a purple T-Shirt. Meanwhile Annabeth finally gathered the courage to ask Percy the question that has been bothering her for some time already,

" Percy, what is your relationship with Reyna?"

He just shrugged, "Reyna's my fellow praetor and friend I guess. I don't know if she likes me in any other way" but he looked a bit guilty when he said that, "She actually recognized me when I got here, she knows you as well."

Annabeth looked confused and Percy just continued, " Reyna and her sister Hylla were Circe's assistants in the sea of monsters. When we released the pirates, they took revenge on the inhabitants of the spa. Reyna and her sister barely made it. They both hated me at first but I finally made peace with them. I don't know how they'll react to you though."

" No wonder they looked so familiar!" Annabeth exclaimed and suddenly looked guilty and worried.

" Don't worry Wise Girl, we'll figure things out." Percy smiled at her and sat next to her.

Annabeth smiled " I know we will." And kissed him. Annabeth could have stayed that way forever but just then she heard Jason calling Percy's name. They let go and Percy took her hand as they went outside. Percy got mobbed by all his old friends, Grover, Rachel, the Stolls even Clarisse.

Grover hugged him and Percy laughed, " I missed you to G-Man!"

Then he turned to all his Greek friends, " Ok guys, you can make yourself comfortable here while Annabeth, I, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Thalia and Rachel go meet Reyna."

Annabeth could not help noticing how much more confident and commanding Percy became, it made her proud and worried at the same time.

Together they set out towards the Principia which Annabeth figured was the huge, white domed, military building. She could not help but marvel at the architecture, it made her want to redesign her camp. Everyone walked through the huge, metal doors and entered a big spacious room. In the center was a table and two, high chairs. Reyna sat in one of them, on her either side were two automaton dogs, one gold, the other silver. Reyna regarded everyone who entered with a cold air of indifference but her glance did linger longer on Percy and Jason.

" Well, I suppose you want to discuss the prophecy." Percy told her. Annabeth had a feeling that the second chair was meant for him but he did not sit in it.

Reyna frowned when she noticed that he did not sit next to her but nodded eventually, " We need to decide whom it is concerning and when should everyone depart. I take it you and Jason are part of it."

Percy nodded " Frank and Hazel are also a part of it and I believe Annabeth is as well."

" Piper and Leo are part of it too." Jason added.

Reyna nodded " I believe these are the only demigods who will leave."

" Is it not allowed to bring other people?" Thalia frowned.

" Maybe" Percy shrugged " These seven are the main characters but other demigods will be involved in this quest as well. After all we do need to save Nico."

" Save Nico?" Annabeth frowned.

" He was captured by Gaea in Rome." Hazel said sadly. Annabeth realized that Nico was her brother, even though he was greek.

" Wait," Annabeth said, " How do you know Nico?". She directed the question towards Reyna who narrowed her eyes.

" Nico Di Angelo has been coming to Camp Jupiter for nearly an year as the ambassador of Pluto." She said warily, " A better question would be, how do you know him?"

Before Annabeth could answer Percy stepped in, " Reyna: Annabeth, Thalia, Grover and I found Nico and his sister Bianca around three years ago. Nico is a son of Hades, a Greek. He even has a cabin built in Camp Half-Blood." Both Hazel and Reyna looked surprised at the news.

" No wonder he never stayed." Reyna muttered.

Hazel looked at Percy with a concerned expression, " He pretended to not know you when you showed up to camp and yet you know each other really well."

Percy shrugged but his eyes glinted angrily, " He is my friend. I can see why he did not want to disrupt Juno's plan by making me remember stuff earlier than necessary. Still, that is not stopping me from wringing his neck when we save his sorry butt in Rome."

Annabeth and Thalia smiled. " You never change in some ways seaweed brain." Annabeth smirked.

Reyna was still frowning, " I cant believe he kept his true identity and the Greek camp a secret." She smiled at Percy, " Maybe I'll help you strangle him."

Percy laughed, " I've got the strangling handled, you can maim him."

" Deal" Reyna smiled, and Annabeth could not help noticing how her eyes were shining. Hazel meanwhile turned pale throughout the conversation. Obviously she was afraid for her brother as he was going to be confronted by a group of angry demigods. Assuming he survived.

" Back to the quest." Jason said, " We'll leave for Rome it two days. We need to get the ship ready for the voyage. I want Thalia to accompany us. Someone from this camp can come as well. How about you Reyna?"

Reyna sighed, " Someone has to stay as praetor." Annabeth saw how much Reyna wanted to come.

" Cant you appoint someone else temporarily?" Annabeth asked her. Percy answered her instead.

" We could but that someone will probably be the power-hungry snake Octavian. We cant afford to have him as praetor now that the Greeks are revealed, he'll start a war."

Then Percy stopped and looked at Reyna thoughtfully. " Your sister is still here right?" he asked her.

" Yes." Reyna answered glumly.

" Well why don't you ask her to take your position temporarily." Percy offered.

Reyna shook her head, " No Percy, take the Greek demigods with you. I have to keep the order at this camp. Even if one praetor position is saved, there is another to worry about. I will have to make sure that Octavian wont usurp your position."

" But…" Percy argued.

" No" Reyna said with finality, " I cannot come and you know it too well yourself. Its up to you seven now and whoever else you want to take along with you."

Percy looked into her eyes and they seemed to be holding a silent conversation again, then Percy let out an exasperated sigh, " Very well. Do as you wish. We'll be leaving in two days and the people on the ship will be coming with us. We'll figure out everything else on the way. Agreed?"

He directed the last part toward Jason who nodded. " Good." Percy said, " Meeting dismissed."

Everyone started to file out. Annabeth and Percy headed toward the praetors house. They sat on the porch.

" Technically this is my house" Percy said, " But I don't want it. Jason's stuff is still there. I don't like to be recognized as praetor anyway."

Annabeth was listening to him but her mind wondered about something else. Why did Percy look warily at her when they discussed the quest to Rome. It was as if he knew something concerning her but wanted to keep it hidden. Annabeth decided to ask him about it later. They sat one the porch, talking about things that happened while they were apart. Then Percy pulled her close and kissed her. For the first time in months Annabeth finally felt happy, complete. She finally found her boyfriend. They pulled away and Annabeth smiled at Percy, " I'm so glad that I finally found you seaweed brain."

" Me to" he smiled and kissed her again.

* * *

><p>The next two days were a blur for Annabeth. Between hanging out with Percy, checking out the Roman camp and getting to know the Romans themselves, she barely had time to breathe. She was helping her friends provision the ship. During the day she didn't see Percy a lot because he had a lot of praetor duties and it set her teeth on edge when she thought of him spending time with Reyna. Annabeth didn't know what to do about her. She obviously liked Percy. The only thing that kept her from thinking about Reyna was work, so she worked as hard as she could. Finally the moment had arrived. Now they had to leave on their most likely suicide quest. Annabeth tried to think positively, they would survive. All the Romans gathered before the ship and Annabeth could see how sad they were to say goodbye to Percy; they obviously liked they're new praetor. They didn't like Jason leaving after he had just arrived either. Jason said goodbye to his friends and smiled at Reyna before he went up on the ship. Percy was the last to leave. He said goodbye to the Romans, promising that he would be back and that they had to stay strong while he was gone. Then he turned to Reyna. Annabeth saw how they exchanged a few words. At the end of their conversation Reyna looked sad. She looked at Percy with a masked expression but Annabeth could see the longing in her eyes. Abruptly, Reyna hugged Percy, then stepped away, wished him good luck and walked away. Percy walked onto the ship with a dazed expression. When he came up both Annabeth and Jason raised they're eyebrows.<p>

" She just wanted to thank me for reuniting her with her sister and wish me good luck." Percy explained hastily to Annabeth. She looked at him angrily for a moment but then just shrugged and turned away. Reyna was staying at camp while Annabeth was going to Rome with Percy. She didn't have to worry about her now. So she took Percy's hand and watched Camp Jupiter look farther away as the ship gained altitude and Leo navigated it through the clouds toward Rome.


	2. Percy II

**Since you guys like the story I decided to continue it. I wont upload again until I get at least 5 reviews. Thanks to those who like the story it means a lot to me. Please Review :)**

Percy was still dazed from the days events. The reunion with his friends went better than he could have imagined but the thing that made him happiest was seeing Annabeth. He had missed her so much. He was worried that she might have moved on, considering that he was gone for eight months but then he pushed the thought aside, Annabeth wasn't like that. After the amazing reunion, Percy spent as much time as possible with Annabeth but sadly as praetor he had a lot of duties to attend to. The following two days all he did was organize the camp after the battle and help load the supplies aboard the ship. Reyna helped him out a lot but he noticed that for some reason she seemed sad and worried. After a day he decided to ask her, what was up with her. Percy found Reyna in the Principia as usual. She was always pouring over some account, report or something else. He had no idea how she managed to sit like that for hours and read boring reports, it would have driven him insane.

" Hey Reyna," He greeted her, " What are you doing?"

Reyna raised her head and her sad expression seemed to brighten a bit when she saw him but then it looked sad again.

" I'm worried Percy. I'm not sure that the Greeks and Romans can get along." She said.

" Nobody started a war yet, even though the Greeks have been here for nearly two days." Percy pointed out.

" There are few of them and they stick mostly to the ship. I trust you Percy, but I cant seem to trust your friends yet." Reyna sighed.

" Jason trusts them. He lived with them for eight months and returned in a perfect mood and shape. They took care of him, even though they knew he was Roman."

" We took care of you too Percy, and accepted you as a Greek. I accepted you. I even forgave your past actions. I find it hard to trust your friends because they haven't proved themselves yet."

Percy didn't know what to say to that. There was no way the Greeks could prove themselves to the Romans so quickly. A good demonstration would be war games or Capture the Flag, but they didn't have the time to hold them yet. The Greeks were busy equipping the ship.

" Fine Reyna, its up to you whether you want to trust them or not yet. But I'm glad you trust me." Reyna smiled and nodded at that statement. Percy feeling that he had done the best he could started to walk away but then he remembered something important. He stopped at the doorway and turned to face Reyna,

" What happened with Jason?" He asked her. Percy remembered that she was rather anxious to see him. Reyna grimaced at the question.

" Nothing. He found someone else." She said harshly. Immediately Percy felt bad for asking the question.

" I'm sorry" he said.

Reyna shook her head sadly, " Don't be, its not your fault. Besides, I wasn't sure how I felt about him either. After all we were never together and eight months is a long time."

Percy didn't entirely believe her but he nodded and went outside.

He found Thalia and Rachel standing next to the Fifth Cohort barracks. They smiled when they saw him coming.

" What's up Percy, you look kind of, sad." Thalia said.

" I'm not sad, I'm tired" Percy answered, which was true. He never did get a chance to rest properly after the quest and the battle.

" Percy, how did you become praetor in a week?" Rachel asked curiously. Percy wanted to save the story till later but now he would have to improvise a bit.

" The Romans raised me on the shield to praetor two days ago when I singlehandedly defeated the giant Polybotes in the battle."

Thalia and Rachel looked surprised. However, Thalia recovered rather quickly.

" Well seaweed brain, I suppose you'll always want to play hero." She smirked.

" If it was my choice I wouldn't play hero at all." Percy grumbled causing Thalia to laugh.

Rachel meanwhile looked thoughtful, " Percy, keep a good eye on Annabeth will you? She seems to not have taken to the Romans well, especially Reyna."

Percy grimaced as he remembered Juno's warning and the prophecy.

" I'll do my best." He sighed, " But I'm afraid for Annabeth. Juno told me that Annabeth will cause trouble for the quest and that she has a tough path ahead of her. Then Ella, a harpy who memorizes every book she reads, including the Sibylline Books, recited a prophecy " Wisdoms daughter walks alone, The Mark of Athena burns through Rome."

" What books?" Thalia asked.

" The Sibylline Books," Percy explained, " They were the books of prophecy that outlined the while destiny of Rome. They were supposed to be burned but Ella seems to have found and read one of the half-burned copies."

" That prophecy doesn't sound to good." Rachel said, " Which makes it even more important that you take care of Annabeth."

" I know that!" Percy argued, " Its just that everyone, Juno, Gaea, Mars seem to be talking about some sacrifice that I have to make. Gaea wants to use me as her pawn. I'm just confused."

Thalia paled throughout the conversation but in the end she smiled at Percy,

" When are you not confused Percy? You had no idea what was going on with that last prophecy. Everything will work out in the end, just like it did last time."

" Hopefully." He mumbled but was glad for her support. He said goodbye and went to his barrack to get some sleep. Of course, dreams found him again.

Percy was standing on a beach, he turned back to see his old home, Camp Half-Blood. It was burning, overrun by monsters. The whole landscape morphed into Gaea's face. She was asleep as usual and her sleepy voice whispered in his mind.

" Do not push you luck Percy Jackson. Even if you are a valuable pawn, you are still causing me damage. Killing Polybotes was unacceptable but after you play your role in my plan, you will suffer a whole lot more than my children after they were defeated by you. Either way, you cannot win my little demigod. Soon, so very soon, my plan will succeed and I will awaken fully and then you and your friends will face certain doom." Her sleepy face smiled and dissolved in the landscape. Percy wanted to run out and punch her but sadly that was impossible. No way to hit a landscape.

Luckily the rest of his dreams weren't as unpleasant, though he did get a glimpse of Nico being shackled and led somewhere but before he got a better look the dream ended.

In the morning, he found Annabeth and the others already at breakfast. Percy went to sit with them. Annabeth had circles under her eyes.

" Hey Wise Girl." He said smiling, " Anything wrong?"

She just shrugged " Couldn't sleep well. That's all."

Percy didn't exactly believe her but if Annabeth didn't want to talk about what was bothering her than he wouldn't ask. He learned a long time ago that it was no good to press Annabeth when she didn't want to talk. Reyna made a short speech about wishing the seven of the prophecy good luck and that the Romans would stand by their side in this war.

After the last supplies were loaded, everyone began boarding the ship. Percy saw the campers sadden after they had to say goodbye to Jason, he was their hero after all. What surprised him was that the Romans were even sadder about telling him goodbye. Not wanting to leave without saying anything, he made a short speech where he talked about them being brave and that he would come back to visit them. Percy had no idea what he would do if he survived this quest. He wanted to return home but he had grown to like Camp Jupiter as well. He would figure it out later. Before he boarded he had one last thing left to do. Reyna was standing before the ship. He walked up to her.

" Well, I suppose this is goodbye. To bad I didn't get to spend more time here." Percy told her.

Reyna looked even sadder then she did the other day in the Principia, " Percy I really hope you survive. I wouldn't want Gaea to take you. If you survive remember that you always have a home with us. Your one of us now as well."

The gesture surprised Percy, Reyna never stuck him as the welcoming type but he nodded at her and smiled,

" I'll remember that. But I am Greek Reyna, I'll have to return where I belong eventually. Jason would do a much better job leading here."

Reyna just sighed and turned away, " I want to thank you for bringing my sister here. I didn't have a chance to tell you that before. You saved my camp, my new home. I will always be thankful to you for that."

Then she hugged him. Percy didn't expect that but he hugged her back. Reyna let go and when she looked at him, for the first time he saw her eyes loose the strict Roman look and tinged with red.

" Good Luck. I hope you'll come back" She added and looked at him wistfully for the last time before walking away.

Percy walked on the ship still rather dazed from the encounter. Reyna wasn't emotional type, yet she had clearly shown that she cared about what happened to him. Percy had a vague suspicion about the reason behind her care. However, he decided to dismiss it considering that he had never been really bright around girls; he just didn't understand them.

On the ship Annabeth and Jason were looking at him with they're eyebrows raised. Only then he realized that Annabeth saw his whole exchange with Reyna. He hastily explained that it was only Reyna thanking him and wishing him good luck. To his happiness and surprise, Annabeth didn't push the matter and took his hand as she gazed at the fading camp.

" So…" Percy turned to his shipmates, " Since we've got some quality time on this ship how about we talk about our quests. Juno told me she was being held in prison and I would really like to know who let her out and why."

Jason smiled, " Piper, Leo and I went on the quest to free Hera…" he began. Percy just settled into a comfortable chair and got ready to exchange stories about crazy adventures.


	3. Jason III

**So there is more Percabeth in here since you guys asked for it. Please review and if you have any ideas about how I should continue the story please let me know because soon I'll be stuck. Leave your ideas in the reviews. If you have any problems with the story let me know, I 'll try to improve it.**

For the first time in his life Jason managed to experience four really different emotions at the same time. He was happy, sad, worried and anxious. He was happy because he could see his old friends but sad that he had leave them soon, he was worried about seeing Octavian who could cause trouble and anxious to see Reyna even though he had no idea what to do about her. During the whole flight to Camp Jupiter, Jason worked very hard to create a calm façade of confidence he would greet the Romans with. The last thing he needed was to show up and look weak in front of them. Unfortunately, when he and Annabeth went out to meet Reyna, Jason saw the second praetor who turned out to be Percy Jackson and his confidence began to slowly crumble. For the first time in his life he saw a person who was his level or more powerful even. Percy radiated power and confidence like a god. That was no surprise considering how much he had accomplished in his life. Jason always thought that his victory over Krios was a huge accomplishment but after hearing what Percy had done, he felt that it was a rather minor feat. Percy defeated four major Titans, all of whom were more powerful than Krios and one of them was the all-powerful Titan Lord himself. Camp Half-Blood was full of legends about him. Five quests, four Titans, two major gods and two minor ones as well as thousands of monsters? Everyone at camp considered Percy a leader.

Jason worked very hard to receive praetorship at his camp. It took him years of consistent hard work and a victory over a Titan to achieve it. However, even before he became praetor, everyone looked up to him because he was the son of Jupiter. He was used to being leader to a certain extent. Meeting Percy could change that. As far as he deduced after listening to various accounts about Percy, he was used to being leader and was rather rebellious as well. He took orders from nobody unless he felt like it. Jason felt that it was going to be one long quest he had to endure. The great Percy Jackson managed to become praetor in a week which Jason never even thought was possible.

After he tested himself against Percy, he found the justification for his appointment as praetor. The guy nearly broke his hand and while Jason struggled to maintain a calm expression Percy's face was an emotionless mask. Percy seemed like a good guy though, a good friend. He greeted his family happily and was very friendly even to the people he didn't know. Jason was glad that Percy was so nice, he would hate to have him as an enemy. However, he remembered asking Thalia if she and Percy ever fought and she laughed saying that they were best friends that were at each others throats from time to time. Apparently they have fought sometimes. That didn't exactly reassure Jason.

After the Greeks got settled among the Romans, Jason decided that it was time to talk to Reyna. He was tired of that lump of guilt he felt in his chest every time he was with Piper. He really liked her but wanted to settle everything with Reyna before officially asking her out. Though in unofficial terms they could already classify as boyfriend and girlfriend. In the evening, Jason went to Reyna's house, took a deep breathe and knocked on the door. He heard a faint " Come in". Jason walked into the house to find Reyna sitting on her bed, polishing her dagger. She looked up when he entered and let out a surprised gasp when she saw him.

" Jason, what are you doing here?" she asked him.

Jason actually laughed and asked, " I'm gone for eight months and that's what you tell me when I come to see you?"

Reyna cracked a smile, " Well then how has you life been for the past eight months?"

" That's a good question." Jason smirked as he sat next to Reyna, " My life among the Greeks was great. Even though I completely lost my memory when I first met them. That is one experience I would not like to repeat."

Reyna assessed him carefully, " Did you remember nothing? Percy remembered some things when he got here."

Jason sighed, " No Reyna, I remembered absolutely nothing in the beginning, I didn't remember you."

Reyna grimaced, " You found someone else didn't you?"

Jason was surprised that she figured it out so quickly. He nodded sadly. He expected Reyna to yell or tell him to get out or do something just a bit extreme. Instead she just sighed and said,

" I expected as much. You were gone for eight months Jason. That's a long time. People change."

Jason looked at her warily, " Are you saying that I've changed?"

Reyna let out an exasperated sigh, " Of course I'm saying that. You may still be Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, but you're not the Jason that you were eight months ago. You've changed because you spent time with the Greeks. Both you and Percy, seemed to have developed second aspects from the times you spent at each others camps."

Jason was confused for a moment because he couldn't seem to process what Reyna just told him. He didn't change, or at least that's what he thought.

" Reyna I'm still me. The person I was eight months ago." He argued.

Reyna just smiled wryly and said, " So you say you're the same? I can prove that you've changed. Assuming you survive the quest, where will you return to live?"

Jason had to admit the question caught him off guard. He wanted to answer immediately that he would return to Camp Jupiter but he found himself hesitating. Did returning to Camp Jupiter mean that he would have to say goodbye to Piper? To Leo and all his new friends? At the thought of leaving Piper, an intense pain sprang in his heart and he instantly knew that he couldn't leave her. He liked her to much.

" You're right." Jason whispered as the revelation hit him, " I've changed."

" I know I'm right," Reyna sighed with a sad expression and Jason realized that she was hoping that she was wrong. Jason wanted to direct the conversation down a less painful avenue and decided to ask Reyna the question that had been bothering him all day.

" Reyna, how did Percy become praetor in a week?" he asked.

" I suppose he'll want to tell the story of his quest himself, however, we raised him on the shield to praetor two days ago after he returned the legions lost eagle from Alaska and singlehandedly slew the giant Polybotes." Reyna said with slight awe and respect in her voice. Jason noticed how she sat up straighter and how her eyes began to shine when she talked about Percy. He had a vague suspicion about the reason why Reyna let him go so easily and didn't get angry when he told her that he found someone else.

" He defeated the giant alone? Whose bane was Polybotes?" Jason asked.

" The bane of Neptune, Percy's father. Percy defeated him alone, well he did bash Terminuses head into the giants face in the end but otherwise he fought alone."

Jason felt awed and ashamed at the same time. Percy defeated the bane of his father alone, without much trouble, while Jason barely survived fighting Enceladus, the bane of a lesser Olympian god. It made him want to prove himself in some way. Hopefully this quest would provide the opportunity.

" Ok Reyna. Thanks for…" Jason struggled to find the word, " Everything."

Reyna just smiled slightly. Before Jason could leave the house Reyna called his name. He turned around curiously.

" Who?" She asked him, her eyes tight. At first Jason didn't realize what she meant but slowly he understood that she was asking about who he found at the Greek camp. He didn't exactly want to answer but he owed it to Reyna.

" Piper." He mumbled guiltily. Reyna kept her face carefully empty of emotion as she nodded and turned away. Jason left the cabin and struggled to keep himself from running away from the house. The encounter left his mind and emotions muddled. Reyna pointed out the things that he didn't even notice before. Then he sighed and walked to the second praetors house as he tried to accept his messed up life. Percy gave Jason the praetors house even though it now officially belonged to him. Jason argued with him about that but Percy wouldn't budge.

" It was your house before Hera stole your life from you. It will be yours again when you return from this quest. I'm not planning to stay praetor here." Percy said.

What Jason didn't point out was that he didn't know if he was going to return to Camp Jupiter himself. He would discuss the matter with Percy later.

The next day was rather uneventful because all Jason did was prep the Argo II for the voyage but luckily for him, he did get to catch up with his friends. They haven't changed much since he was gone so it didn't make him feel like he was missing out much. Dakota was still drunk on Kool-Aid, Bobby was still riding Hannibal the elephant and Gwen was still just as nice, though it made Jason sad that she left the camp to go to college. The only person who had changed much was Hazel. Jason didn't know her really well before he was taken but she always struck him as a shy girl who was a bit weird. There were a lot of rumors about her but he paid them no attention since the girl was nice and he wasn't the type of person who heeded mean rumors. Hazel used to hide away and try to avoid everyone. Now she stood more confident and powerful. Gone was the image of the shy girl. Jason wondered about what happened that changed her like that. The other thing that surprised him was that Hazel looked at Leo warily, like he was some kind of bomb. Nobody ever paid Leo much attention, especially girls, unless he irritated them to much. Hazel was looking at him like a ghost which Jason didn't understand at all. He made a mental note to ask her later.

For the first time in his life, Jason got to know the real Annabeth. She was so much different from the girl who wanted to murder him when she first met him in the Grand Canyon. When she was with Percy, she looked carefree and happy. Jason caught sight of them near the second praetors house the day before. He usually wasn't an eavesdropper but he was curious about Percy's and Annabeth's relationship. Everyone at the Greek camp talked about them.

They were sitting on the grass, talking softly. Jason heard Percy say,

" I hope you didn't spend these eight months just worrying about me like you were worried when I got lost after I caused the explosion at Mt. St. Helens."

Percy caused that volcano to explode? What other crazy things had he done in his life. Jason decided to ask Percy to retell all of his adventures during their voyage on the Argo II. It seemed as though they never ended. Jason couldn't see Annabeth but he imagined that she was rolling her eyes,

" Of course I was worried seaweed brain. You were gone for eight months! Just because you had the pleasure of sleeping and loosing your memory that kept you from worrying doesn't mean that everyone else forgot about you to. I was afraid you were dead in the beginning, you just vanished."

Jason could hear the hurt and pain in Annabeths voice. She was even more worried then she let on and that's saying something because the last month she was so tense that people were even afraid to approach her with a question. From the corner of his eye, Jason saw Percy hug Annabeth.

" Wise girl, I remembered you from day one. The moment I woke up I remembered you and your name. You were the only reason I chose this quest and going to the Roman camp and loosing the Achilles curse in the first place."

Annabeth gasped, " You lost the Achilles curse? Percy how could you do that? And what do you mean that you chose the Roman camp? What other option did you have?"

It seemed to Jason that Annabeth never ran out of questions. It made him sympathetic towards Percy who had to answer all of them.

Percy let out a frustrated sigh, " Loosing the curse was not my idea. When I crossed the Little Tiber river, it washed away my curse because it was a Greek blessing that could not be kept in Roman territory. Juno gave me the option of going out to live in the sea, where I could live a happy, long life or choosing pain and misery and saving all my friends. As you can see I chose the latter."

It surprised Jason that Percy managed to make a choice like that when he barely had his memory. He really was loyal to his friends.

" Well seaweed brain, I'm glad you did. I would never have seen you otherwise." Annabeth smiled.

" I'm glad I did to." Percy said as he pulled Annabeth close to him and kissed her. Jason decided now was the time to stop listening so he quietly walked away. Seeing Percy and Annabeth like that made him jealous of their relationship. He wondered if he would ever be like that with Piper. Now was the time to make his move because tomorrow they were leaving for the quest and it was hard to judge when the monsters would start attacking and whether or not they would survive. Realizing that, Jason went to find Piper. Luckily for him, he saw her walking up Temple Hill, towards her mothers temple. Jason followed her silently. While Piper was in the temple, Jason sat near it as he gazed at the camp. He didn't exactly know what to tell Piper, but he was tired of postponing the moment. He never asked her out officially because he thought of Reyna but now that that matter was settled, he could do whatever he wanted to. So he sat on the grass waiting for Piper. After a while she came out of the temple with a thoughtful expression. She was so distracted she didn't even notice Jason sitting there until he called out to her.

" Hey Piper." He called.

Piper turned around and let out a startled gasp, " Jason… What are you doing here?"

" Waiting for you." Jason answered simply. Piper looked at him curiously before sitting next to him.

" And why were you waiting for me?" she raised her eyebrows.

Jason took a deep breathe, " Because I wanted to talk to you." Piper kept looking at him as if motioning him to go on. Jason tried to swallow his nervousness as he continued,

" Look Piper, I don't know how to explain this…" he began but Piper interrupted him.

" Its OK if you have a girlfriend here Jason." Piper turned away, "I wont hold that against you." But her voice broke with sadness as she said that.

" No! That's not it." Jason shook his head as he took her hand.

" I just wanted to say that I don't have a girlfriend here and I know that I kept you waiting for a long time already but I would be really glad if you would…" the words stuck in his throat. Piper turned to look at him and her eyes were shining.

" Wow Sparky, you had all this time to think about what you have to say and you still cant get it out." She teased as she kissed him.

Jason was happy and surprised at the same time. He was glad that Piper understood what he was saying immediately even though he completely messed up. But he didn't care because now was the best moment in his life. They sat like that for a while before both of them ran out of breathe. When they pulled back, they looked into each others eyes, smiling like lovesick fools. For a while, they just sat on the hill, talking about everything and nothing until Jason finally escorted Piper to the Fifth Cohort barracks where he kissed her goodnight. Then with a ridiculously happy smile on his face he walked back to his house in a daze. That night he still saw some troublesome dreams, like the giants attacking and the real Mt. Olympus burning but even that couldn't ruin his happy mood. After eight long months he finally got what he wanted. It would take a lot to ruin his mood.

The next day, once they boarded the Argo II, Jason pretended not to pay attention to that Reyna barely told him goodbye yet hugged Percy before he left. Still it did make him just a bit jealous. He would get over it later.

Percy asked him to talk about his quest. Jason smiled as he got ready to retell a scary quest. Maybe for once, his adventures were scarier than Percy Jackson's. He doubted it though. So Jason sat comfortably with his arm around Piper and Leo on his other side as they got ready to talk about their crazy adventure.


	4. Annabeth IV

**So guys, I'm really sorry that I couldn't update earlier, my internet was down. Anyway, here is an extra long chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to those people who reviewed, you guys are amazing. So Read and REVIEW!**

Annabeth sat next to Percy and he put his arm around her as they got ready to listen to Jason's quest. Annabeth had heard it before and she wasn't really interested in it but she understood that Percy would not talk about his quest unless he heard Jason's. Anyway Annabeth certainly wouldn't pass up on an opportunity of hearing about Hera suffering in prison like she deserved.

" Piper, Leo and I went on the quest to rescue Hera." Jason began. " I woke up in a bus with Leo and Piper near the Grand Canyon, five days before the winter solstice. I remembered nothing except my name."

" Hold up." Percy frowned, " You didn't even remember your last name?"

Jason shook his head sadly, "I remembered it later, the next day. Anyway, we were attacked _venti_ and coach Hedge out satyr protector was taken by them."

" Venti?" Percy asked.

" Anemoi Thuelai, storm spirits." Annabeth explained to him. Percy nodded as he remembered.

" Then, Annabeth and rainbow pony dude came to pick us up on a flying chariot." Leo exclaimed. At that everyone began to laugh.

" Is he talking about Butch?" Percy asked Annabeth who smiled and nodded. She was really happy that Percy seemed to have regained his memory completely in such a short amount of time. It took Jason eight months to return his memory and he was still missing some things.

" So these storm spirits attacked us in the way and we crashed the chariot into the camp lake." Leo continued and he, Jason and Piper shivered as they recalled their unplanned, winter swim.

" So what?" Percy asked, " Crashing into the lake isn't bad."

" Not everyone is a child of the sea god, seaweed brain." Annabeth rolled her eyes. In many ways Percy stayed the same. It amazed Annabeth that the Romans didn't kill him for being so annoying.

" Leo was claimed right after he got to camp." Piper said, " and I was claimed by Aphrodite in the evening, during the campfire. But before I got claimed, Hera sent me a message through Rachel, which nearly killed me by the way, and warned me not to listen to the giant and free her instead. The giant sent me a vision two days before and told me that he had my father. The giants name was Enceladus, the bane of Athena."

" He stole your father?" Percy grimaced as Piper nodded. " Cant the villains come up with any new tricks? I mean seriously, first they steal my mom, then Annabeth and turns out they do the same thing to Piper."

" Who stole your mom?" Hazel asked curiously.

" Hades, I mean Pluto, took her before the minotaur could kill her. Right before I made it to camp."

" You fought the minotaur?" Jason asked surprised, " At what age?"

" I fought him the first time when I was twelve and the second time when I was fifteen." Percy shrugged indifferently as Jason, Leo, Piper, Frank and Hazel were staring at them. Annabeth had to stifle a laugh. It would take a long time for the others to get used to Percy.

" I cant believe that my dad took your mother." Hazel muttered.

" It's Ok, I'm kind of used to bad things from your dad considering that he wants to kill me every time he sees me." Percy told her. Annabeth rolled her eyes, that really wasn't the best thing for him to say right now. He was still such a seaweed brain.

" He tried to kill you? More than once?" Hazel looked horrified and Frank put his arm around her shoulder protectively.

" He tried to kill me all the three times I was in the underworld. Once I got away with the gift from my dad, another time I had to make a promise I still regret and the third time I defeated him and his army after I came out from the river Styx." Percy said blushing as he took in the gaping faces.

" Why are they staring at me like that?" Percy whispered to Annabeth who smirked.

" Really seaweed brain? You don't get it?" She teased him.

Percy just rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her. Annabeth just giggled and leaned back on his shoulder.

" Umm… guys, could you get on with your story?" Percy asked the still gaping Jason, Leo and Piper who finally snapped out of it.

" Can you tell us about your trips to the underworld? And don't miss out on all the awesome details." Leo begged. Percy just smiled and said, " Later, lets figure out these quests first."

Leo's eyes were shining with anticipation. Annabeth would love to see his reaction to Percy's crazy stories. Besides she couldn't wait to make fun of him for worshipping Percy.

" So Hera appeared to me as Juno and issued the quest. She also mentioned that I belonged to her because Zeus gave me to her to appease her anger. I didn't get all that then because of my memory loss, but I learned the meaning of that statement later. During the campfire, Rachel made a prophecy, which said that I had to be on the quest, as well as a child of Aphrodite and a child of Hephaestus." Jason said.

Percy smirked, " I wonder who those heroes will be." He said sarcastically and everyone chuckled.

" Anyway", Leo continued, " I decided to provide the ride for this quest, which was Festus the dragon, the masthead of this ship…"

Leo was interrupted by a surprised Percy. He looked at Annabeth, " Is he talking about the bronze dragon that almost killed us? Me specifically?"

Annabeth laughed, " Yeah, seaweed brain. Leo repaired him so he didn't go haywire on their quest."

" How could he repair him?" Percy sounded outraged, " That thing tried to kill me various times. And I was the idiot who chose to stand right in front of his open mouth when he was attacking."

Leo stared at Percy, " Dude you chose to stand in front of an attacking haywire dragon?"

Percy blushed and muttered, " I know it was a stupid idea. Its not like I had much of a choice. It was either me standing in front of the dragon or everyone dying. I chose the first option."

" That's totally awesome!" Leo exclaimed, " Your even crazier than I thought. You actually prove that demigods should do dangerous things."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, " He does dangerous things because he is a seaweed brain. If he had a bit more common sense, he wouldn't have a death wish."

Everyone laughed as Percy exclaimed, " That is not true. If I had it my way, I wouldn't do any of those things."

" I think Annabeth is right Percy, you do pretty extreme things sometimes." Hazel said looking thoughtful.

A sudden panic gripped Annabeth, what did the seaweed brain do while she was gone?

" Hazel, what did he do?"

Hazel opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Percy immediately,

" We'll talk about our quest, once they finish theirs. And I will talk about the dangerous moments, if you don't mind." He said all this while looking nervously at Annabeth.

Frank laughed, " Dude, your not afraid to fight Polybotes, and yet your afraid of your girlfriend."

Annabeth laughed at that along with everyone else, but in her heart she was thinking of how much she would yell at Percy if he did to many extreme things.

Percy blushed, " Your saying that because you haven't seen her angry."

Those who knew Annabeth, immediately shut up, while Annabeth rolled her eyes. She punched Percy in the arm muttering, "Seaweed Brain."

" So," Leo continued with an amused expression, " I found Festus in the woods. He took me to Bunker 9, which was the Hephaestus cabin command center during the demigod civil war. There I found the wings designed for Festus and attached them to him. I also found this awesome tool belt, " he said while showing everyone his blue tool belt, " which gives me nearly everything that can be found in a machine shop, as well as food."

" That is so cool," Frank grinned, " It would be so convenient to carry that thing around and not bothering with supplies. Plus it would give me lactose-free food, as well."

Percy meanwhile looked thoughtful. Annabeth noticed that he had become a lot more serious after the Roman camp. Usually he was much more goofy and fun.

" How did you survive the dragon?" He asked, " If I'm not mistaking, that thing had firepower as well."

Leo looked uncomfortable for the first time since they boarded the ship.

" Well ummm…" He stammered.

" Just spit it out already Valdez," Piper rolled her eyes, " Your power has saved our butts a lot of times during the quest."

" I'm fire resistant." Leo said quickly, " And I also happen to be the first child of Hephaestus since 1666, who has the gift of fire."

To prove his point, he raised his hand and it sparked into flames. Annabeth could barely stop herself from laughing at Percy's astounded expression. She also noticed Frank cringe away fearfully once he saw the flames. She would ask Percy about that later.

" Ok, you guys, hold up." Percy told Jason, Leo and Piper, " I want the rest of you to explain your powers as well."

Jason just shrugged, " Sure, why not? So my powers, are similar to Thalia's, except that I can fly."

Annabeth noticed that he looked smug when he said that and was looking at Percy expectantly, waiting for his reaction. Sadly for him though, it wasn't much. Percy was looking at Thalia with a surprised expression.

" Can you fly?" he asked her.

Thalia looked sick at the thought, " Honestly, I never tried. And I don't want to try. I hope you understand why."

" I think, I understand." Percy looked at Thalia knowingly and she blushed.

" My power is charm speak." Piper said.

" And that is…" Percy looked confused.

Annabeth decided to explain this time.

" Percy do you remember Drew?"

He looked confused for a moment but then understanding dawned his expression.

" The new head counselor in the Aphrodite cabin. I don't think I liked her." He said that part grimacing, " Silena was a lot better." During the last part he looked sad in spite himself.

Annabeth was sad too. Silena was one of her friends after all, but there was no use in dwelling on the past.

" Drew has the ability to charm speak, that's how she got everyone in the cabin to listen to her. Piper's the new head counselor."

" What did you do? Charm speak her to give up the place?" Percy smirked at Piper who blushed.

" Charm speaking isn't my only power," she brought out her dagger, " Unlike Drew, I also know how to use this."

Percy smiled, " Remind me to not get on your bad side."

Everyone laughed, except Jason who began eyeing Percy suspiciously. Annabeth was surprised that he was so jealous. She could understand Jason's point though. Apparently she wasn't the only one who noticed how Reyna acted around Percy. Then she stopped herself from thinking about Reyna, she promised herself that she wouldn't think about her during the quest, so in order to avoid meaningless fits of jealousy.

" Can you guys get one with the quest, I'm kind of interested with the rest." Frank complained.

" Sure, so Leo got us the ride: Happy the dragon." Jason snorted, "We decided to fly to the wind god Boreas first because we were attacked by storm spirits."

" When we got there, Boreas children, who looked like underdeveloped cupids, tried to kill us." Leo said.

Percy smirked, " Underdeveloped cupids?" he asked sarcastically.

" Dude, you should have seen them." Leo complained, " One was covered with bruises from playing hockey all the time and could speak three syllable words and the other was a like a groovy, love god, with a terrible acne. He had this Elvis style clothes and hair."

" I don't think we've met anything that hideous during our quest." Percy told Frank and Hazel.

" Well, the Karpoi did look rather pathetic" Hazel said.

Frank shook his head, " Still not so bad."

Then they realized that everyone was staring at them.

Percy blushed, " Sorry for the interruption guys, go on."

" So, Jason and I were led to meet Boreas by his crazy daughter, the snow goddess, Khione." Piper said in an angry voice, " Leo wasn't allowed to come because of his fire abilities or whatever."

" Boreas wanted to kill us but he let us go after he found out I was a son of Zeus and figured out Juno's plan. He said that we would tear each other apart." Jason said grimacing. Percy paled slightly when he heard those words. However, he still decided to try to look optimistic.

" Don't worry we wont. You and I are living examples that Greek and Roman demigods can live together without tearing each other apart."

Jason looked unconvinced, but Annabeth was glad that Percy said that. Everyone needed cheering up, to much was at stake, to much was riding on their shoulders. Percy was doing the right thing by trying to cheer the others up.

" Hopefully your right." Jason said.

" I know I am." Percy smirked, and everyone laughed.

" Wow seaweed brain, did your ego get bigger in that Roman camp?" Annabeth teased Percy and he stuck his tongue out at her while pulling her close at the same time.

" Boreas told us to visit Aoleus, the king of the wind gods. Which means that our journey took us to Chicago, the wind city. There we met one of the worst mortals of all time: Medea." Piper looked very angry as she said Medea's name.

" Something tells me that that encounter didn't go to well." Frank commented.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, " No duh, Sherlock" she wanted to say.

" Medea tried to kill us by setting Leo and Jason against each other. She also used an enchantment similar to charm speak. It didn't work on me alone. When I shattered the spell, she attacked us with metal dragons."

Percy whistled, " You guys had a pretty wild quest as well."

" We did, only beauty queen here, missed one of the most important parts" Leo grumbled and got punched by Piper.

" That hurt." He yelled, " And you did miss the Cyclops in Detroit."

Percy frowned, " I think I know which Cyclops you met. Was one of the Cyclops, Ma gasket?"

Jason's, Leo's and Piper's eyes widened.

" That's right." Piper said, " How did you know that?"

Hazel answered her, " We saw Ma Gasket in the giant Polybotes army. She said that she was going to destroy you."

" Except that Tyson killed her before she had the chance." Percy smirked.

" She's dead?" Leo asked, " Like dead dead? For a while at least?"

Percy nodded. Leo jumped up and threw his hands in the air,

" Booyah, take that you big, fat Cyclops lady. You got killed twice in a row."

Everyone rolled their eyes at Leo except Hazel who smiled and let out a small laugh.

" The Cyclops nearly killed me by the way." Jason admitted. Annabeth noticed that he looked very ashamed when he said that. Percy must have noticed that as well,

" Don't worry about it dude. At least you were nearly killed by more than one Cyclops. I was nearly eaten by a stupid, old Cyclops wearing a baby blue colored tux and a kilt."

Everyone glanced incredulously at Percy before they were laughing like crazy.

" You know," Jason smirked, " That actually does make me feel better."

Annabeth realized that Percy was talking about Polymphemus. That was not an adventure that she liked to remember.

" After nearly being killed by Medea," Jason continued, " We ran into king Minos and his son Lit. I cant remember Lit's full name. The security lasers around their house sliced Festus into pieces. So we were left alone with to heavy cages that we got at Medea's. One contained our satyr protector Coach Hedge, and the other had the storm spirits we wanted to give as a gift to Aeolus."

" Let me guess, you went into the house, fell asleep there and got attacked by crazy Minos in the morning." Percy said.

" Dude do you read the future or something?" Leo demanded.

" No" Percy rolled his eyes at the idea, though he did look a bit uneasy about that statement, " During quests, everything seems to turn out wrong. No amount of planning or strategies help. Everything is worst case scenario."

Percy looked at Annabeth expectantly, as if daring her to disagree. Even though Annabeth didn't like what Percy just said, she knew it was true to a certain extent. No, it was completely true. Her quest in the labyrinth proved that.

" That is so true." Jason muttered, " Something has to mess up every single time."

" Minos attacked us and turned Leo and Piper into gold." Jason continued. Both of them shivered as they remembered their time as statues and being dunked in cold water.

" That was not fun." Leo muttered.

" I challenged Lit to a battle and nearly won because my fighting technique, legion training, was unfamiliar to him. Then I busted the roof open with lightning and the cold rain washed the gold of everything." Jason continued.

For the first time, Percy looked impressed,

" That was a nice trick man." He told Jason, " To bad I wasn't their though. My water powers could help you guys from turning into gold."

" Its Ok," Jason smiled, looking pleased, " We managed."

" So I woke up in a cave with hypothermia." Piper shivered, " and a sprained ankle from our fall in Detroit. Jason got us near Aeolus's palace by harnessing the wind spirits. That's were I warned everyone about the giant and my dad." Pipers voice was very sad when she said that. Annabeth could relate, she knew what it felt like loosing someone important.

" Then, as if our luck couldn't get any worse, we got attacked by Lycaons wolf pack. I only managed to hold them off for a while with a wall of fire at the entrance of the cave. Just when we thought we were going to be killed by wolves, because the only weapons that could kill them were silver and we didn't have that, the hunters came to the rescue, led by Jason's totally hot sister." Leo said that while glancing hopeful at Thalia.

Percy glanced from Leo to Thalia and burst out laughing. Thalia was seething. She glared at Percy,

" Don't you dare comment, if you value your life." She threatened. That only made Percy laugh harder.

" Come on, Pinecone face, its really not fair that you get to be the one who laughs at me, most of the time. Now its my turn."

At that comment everyone looked at Thalia.

" Pinecone face?" Jason smirked at her.

" The next person who laughs at me or uses that idiotic nickname, Percy included, is going to take a beating Zeus style." Thalia glared at everyone.

Her glare was so scary that even Percy stopped laughing.

" After that, I was reunited with my brother, whom I haven't seen since he was two years old. I'll tell the rest of our story later. I escorted them to the stairs that led to the palace of Aeolus. I couldn't come with them unfortunately because Leo melted the ice bridge that led to the stairs." Thalia looked at Leo with a half angry, half amused expression.

" It was an accident." Leo grumbled.

Percy smirked at Leo, " Dude, cant you control your powers?"

" I can!" Leo grumbled, " But accidents happen, Ok?"

Annabeth used this opportunity to make fun of Percy.

" I wouldn't talk if I were you seaweed brain. After all you did loose control over your powers and make Mt. explode." Annabeth smirked.

Everyone who didn't know Percy before stared at him with their mouths open.

" How did you make the volcano explode?" Leo piped out.

" Why did you make the volcano explode?" Frank asked.

" That was you? We could feel the explosion all the way down in Los Angeles." Piper said incredulously.

" It was blow up the volcano or die." Percy grumbled, " But I didn't mean to cause such a terrible explosion. I was told later, that it was one of the main reasons Typhon was freed."

" I have got to listen to your adventures." Leo exclaimed, " You seem to be in life or death situations most of the time and your totally crazy."

Percy had a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Annabeth rolled her eyes. His ego would grow during this trip.

" You know guys, finish your quest and I'll talk about mine." Percy said.

" Actually, its lunchtime." Hazel said, " How about we take an one hour break and go back to telling our adventure later?"

" Sounds good to me." Jason shrugged and they all got up to have lunch.

Annabeth and Percy lingered behind for some alone time.

" Percy what did you do during the quest? Frank and Hazel looked kind of nervous when they talked about it." For the first time during the journey, Annabeth let all the worry she was keeping inside spring to the surface.

" Annabeth, since I don't want you strangling me earlier than necessary, I'll keep my quest a secret until its my turn to tell the story."

Annabeth punched him, " Seaweed brain. I was really worried about you."

Percy's gaze softened. He put his arms around Annabeth and pulled her close. Annabeth noticed how her heart rate increased immediately.

" I know that, wise girl." He whispered in her ear, " And I'm glad that there was someone like you out there waiting for me."

Before Annabeth could even comment on that statement, Percy silenced all her stray thoughts by kissing her. Annabeth got lost in the kiss. The kiss felt like Percy was trying to make up for all the time they spent apart. They didn't stop for a few minutes and Annabeth decided that this was one of the best moments in her life.

In the end, they pulled back and Percy put his arm around her shoulder.

" Come on Annabeth," he laughed, "Lets get going before the others get suspicious."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and smiled playfully, as she kissed Percy and followed him into the ship.


	5. Percy V

**iSo here you go guys. Chapter 5. Now I want your opinion, should I take the quest to Europe already or do you want a fight or an evaluation of the Mark of Athena. Any helpful suggestions are welcome. Any requests are considered. So remember to read and review. I hope you like this chapter, I worked hard on it.**

During lunch, Percy found himself unusually distracted. For one thing, he was interested in Jason's quest and couldn't wait to listen to what happened next. The thing that worried him though, was after Jason finished his quest, Percy would have to talk about his. How could he tell Annabeth all that? For one thing she would kill him for being so stupid and reckless, and she would be right to do that. However, he was afraid to talk about Ella's prophecy. He really wanted to believe that it didn't refer to Annabeth but he knew in his heart that it did. After all Hera had warned him that Annabeth would cause trouble. He didn't believe that but he also knew that Annabeths fatal flaw was hubris, deadly pride. She would never allow her pride to be hurt and the thing with Reyna already had her badly disposed towards the Romans. Then everybody goes talking about some kind of huge sacrifice Percy has to make. For the first time in his life, Percy found himself wishing for the Titan war. Things were just a bit more clear then. Or did it look like that in his hindsight? Percy just shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. Annabeth looked at him curiously,

" Percy are you alright?" she sounded worried so the expression on his face must have been something.

Percy looked at her and took comfort in the fact that she was there, safe, next to him currently and managed a smile,

" Everything's cool. I was just… thinking."

Annabeth laughed and it was nice for Percy to see her like that.

" Wow, the world really must be ending if seaweed brain is thinking."

" Hey!" Percy protested playfully and everybody laughed. However, Jason was looking at Percy with a serious expression and Percy realized that he was not the only one lost in thought.

" Ok, guys, lets go to the deck and finish the story." Leo said. Everybody started filling out but by unspoken agreement Jason and Percy stayed behind.

" You guys go ahead." Percy told the others, " We'll be there soon."

When the others left, Jason seemed to drop the confident face he had. He looked both tired and worried. Percy realized that he probably looked the same way.

" Were you thinking about this situation? And this war altogether." Jason told Percy. He guessed right, mostly, but Percy supposed it wasn't to hard to guess what everyone was thinking about now.

Percy assessed Jason carefully, trying to make a decision. Should he tell Jason about the prophecy? He did tell Thalia and Rachel. Then he realized that Jason, was a leader just like him, he deserved to know.

" Look, Jason, something happened on my quest that I think you deserve to know." Jason just looked at Percy curiously, so Percy decided to continue.

" You know the harpy Ella?" Jason nodded, " She was one of the harpies sent by Zeus to steal food from Phineas, only now it was the other way around. Anyway, after I killed Phineas, Ella was freed and we brought her along. We discovered that she read almost every book ever written. Including a half-burnt copy of the Sibylline books."

When Percy said that, Jason's mouth fell open and he just stared at Percy in shock.

" That's impossible!" he protested.

" It is possible because during the quest she recited two incomplete prophecies." When Percy said that, he could barely keep himself from laughing at Jason's shocked face.

" One of the prophecies was concerning my quest,

_Far north, beyond the gods, lies the legions crown,_

_Falling__from__ice,__the__son__of__Neptune__shall__drown__… _As you can see it was incomplete."

Jason grimaced, " It didn't sound too good."

" Oh, it wasn't." Percy agreed, " The only thing that didn't happen was me drowning. But I did drown the ghost legion so maybe that was what the prophecy was talking about."

" And how did you drown the legion?" Jason asked looking impressed.

" We'll talk about that later. The thing is, Ella recited another prophecy and I think it concerned this quest.

_Wisdoms__daughter__walks__alone,__the__mark__of__Athena__burns__through__Rome_."

Jason looked thoughtful, " The prophecy is probably about Annabeth but the mark of Athena? What is that?"

Percy could feel all his frustration growing again.

" I wish I knew." He grumbled.

" Then lets keep a close watch on Annabeth, agreed?" Jason asked, " I know she's your girlfriend and she is like a sister to me already, but we cant let anything happen to her, or the quest."

As much as Percy wanted to deny it, he knew that Jason was right so he just nodded and said,

" Agreed, lets join the others, I want to hear how your quest ended."

" Sure, but Percy, one of the things that have been bothering me, is that we haven't been attacked so far."

Percy grimaced, he was going to jinx it.

" Don't worry, with my luck, we'll be attacked really soon."

And on that sour note they headed outside.

" So since I am really interested in Percy's quest, we're going to shorten ours a little." Jason said, " That means no more pointless questions and comments." He said that while looking at Leo.

" So, I think we were talking about Aeolus last." Piper said, " I can describe him in one word. He's completely crazy! One moment he was helping us and then he tried to kill us, only we think Gaea told him to do that. His assistant, an aura Mellie, saved us from a horrible fall. She works as my dads assistant now."

Leo whistled, " Wow beauty queen, you sure managed to pack a lot of action and close to death experiences in one boring sentence." Percy laughed at that, while Piper punched Leo.

" Shut up repair boy. The more stupid comments you make, the longer it will take to finish this stupid story. You do want to listen to Percy's quest."

Leo wisely shut his mouth and motioned at Piper to continue.

" During our fall, I saw Aphrodite, my mom, in my dream. She told me about Gaea and she also gave a potion to heal my dads memory if I saved him."

Percy frowned, " What do you mean, heal his memory? Steal it?"

Piper looked sad and guilty at the same time, making Percy regret asking that question.

" Yes, I meant steal his memory. It was the only way to keep him sane." She said sadly.

" Hold on," Jason looked thoughtful, " You never told us about talking to your mom."

" I'm sorry," Piper sighed, " My mom told me to not tell you guys that I saw her. It would anger the other gods or something."

" So after we woke up, we found out that the storm spirits that Aeolus released on us, carried us all the way to California, near Mt. Diablo, which was the lair of Enceladus." Jason said.

" All the way up the mountain Gaea was messing with, like making our feet stick to the ground. Walking was a pain, especially after beauty queens mom gave me a makeover." Leo grumbled.

" He was dressed like my dad for his movie premier." Piper and Jason laughed.

" What can I say." Leo smoothed his hair, " I bet I looked hot."

Everyone laughed. Percy decided that he was going to like Leo. He was the only one on this ship who had a decent sense of humor. His only drawback was that he didn't know when to stop.

" You keep thinking that Valdez." Piper teased and Leo pouted.

" So, lets stick to the story." Jason said, trying not to laugh, " We found the giants lair. I attacked the giant, which was a stupid idea considering he was more than 20 feet tall and fire-breathing, Piper went to free her dad and Leo went to wire the machines."

" It all went wrong didn't it?" Percy guessed. Everything always messed up when you tried to plan it beforehand. He knew that from experience. How many times did he alone mess up during his quests? He would rather not think about it.

" Yeah it did." Piper whispered.

" Coach Hedge got clubbed and lay heroically passed out during the whole fight." Leo snorted, " Jason was stuck fighting a crazy giant with no god on his side and Piper and I were trying to save her dad from the stinky earthborn."

" They really do stink." Frank wrinkled his nose.

" You met them?" Jason asked.

" Yeah, during the battle. They were in Polybotes army." Percy answered.

" So, Piper and I got rid of the earthborn." Leo continued, " I just wacked them all with my awesome powers."

" Shut it Valdez," Piper rolled her eyes, " That last one would have killed you if it wasn't for me."

" Can you try not to always steal my glory?" Leo demanded.

Jason sighed like he had to break up arguments like that all the time. It reminded Percy how he fought with Annabeth and Thalia sometimes.

" Enough. You guys can chew each others heads of later." Jason said, " While Leo and Piper were fighting the earthborn, I was about to be killed by the giant."

Thalia began to look really worried when Jason said that. Of course she would be worried, Percy thought to himself, Jason was her brother after all. Part of him did wonder if Thalia was ever this worried about him, though.

" My weapon broke during the fight, so I was left completely defenseless." Jason continued.

Now Percy began to wonder how Jason ever made it out alive. His situation did sound terrible. Percy remembered his own fight against the giant. It was really hard, but didn't go as bad as Jason's at least.

" How did you beat him?" Percy asked Jason. Jason just shrugged guiltily and Percy got the feeling that he was still disappointed with that battle.

" I prayed to my father, and offered him my life to just save my friends. Thankfully he answered."

Percy could not help being impressed by that. Jason was about to give his life to save his friends, even though he didn't even know them that well. He also realized that Jason was like him in that way, he was loyal. Percy wondered if Jason's fatal flaw was personal loyalty as well. He hoped not, one leader in the group having that flaw was bad enough already.

" That was brave Jason." Percy told Jason, trying to cheer him up. Jason smiled at Percy.

" So after we rescued Pipers dad, we got Piper to charm speak a helicopter pilot to land on the mountain and take us to the nearest airport." Jason said.

Percy looked at Piper with newfound respect, " I want that power of yours. It would have saved me trouble so many times. Especially when I was blowing up schools."

Piper laughed, " Sorry only Aphrodite children have it. Don't worry though, your powers are awesome as well."

" You blew up schools? Many schools?" Leo demanded

Percy blushed, " And I was the subject of a countrywide manhunt several times. But later about that."

" Dude, I totally want your powers, so stop whining about them." Frank told Percy which he found really unfair. Percy was still miffed about the fact that Frank had his awesome shape shifting power as a gift from Poseidon. It was totally unfair.

" Well your awesome powers are a gift from my dad," Percy argued back, " How is that fair?"

" Who said anything about fair?" Frank grinned, " And your powerful enough already. My powers are lame compared to yours."

" And what kind of power do you have?" Leo asked curiously.

Frank blushed, " I'll explain later."

" So after we landed," Piper said, " Coach Hedge took my dad home. Leo flew the helicopter towards the wolf house where Hera was kept."

" The fighting had already started before they came." Thalia said, " It was a tough fight. Wolves, monsters and a snow goddess against us. But the hunters held the fort until Jason arrived."

" The snow goddess, was Khione?" Percy asked, " She was on Gaea's side."

" Yeah," Piper grumbled, " She cause all the trouble. Like closing Olympus and capturing Hera."

" I fought her with my awesome firepower. I was like flame on and Khione was all screaming in terror." Leo said, his eyes shining crazily as he thought of the fight.

Percy decided that this guy was even more ADHD than most demigods, maybe even the Stolls.

" She was not screaming in terror." Piper rolled her eyes, " But to be fair, repair boy here is useful sometimes, he did get rid of the goddess. However it was to late."

" What do you mean? What happened?" Hazel frowned.

" Porphyrion had risen." Jason said, " So I decided to fight him while Leo and Piper were opening Heras cage. And my weapon was an old wooden plank."

Percy actually laughed when he heard that.

" Attacking the king of giants with a piece of wood for a weapon? That's pretty brave dude." He said and Jason laughed as well.

" Or really stupid." He said.

" You should have seen him," Leo began, " He was all like super lightning man…"

" Leo," Jason interrupted, " Shut up."

Everyone began to laugh at that.

" Lets finish this thing." Piper said, " So Leo and I freed Hera but the giant escaped before we could kill him. Hera killed all the monsters by going nuclear and nearly killed Jason as well. I charm spoke him back to life though."

Jason smiled gratefully at Piper when she said that and took her hand.

" So then Hera returned us back to Camp Half-Blood, where I introduced everyone to Bunker 9 and we began building the Argo II." Leo finished.

" That was interesting." Percy summed up lamely. Interesting didn't really cut it.

" And scary." Frank added, " But I think our quest was worse. We fought two giants."

" Well, then tell us about your quest." Annabeth said impatiently.

" Easy Annabeth," Percy chuckled, " You'll hear everything soon enough."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and leaned on Percy's shoulder. He smiled at her. Just as Percy was about to begin talking about his quest, he felt something. It was a feeling of danger, like something extremely bad was nearby. Over the years he learned not to ignore that feeling. Percy raised his hand and motioned for the others to stay put, as he got up and leaned over the side of the ship. What he saw made his heart leap.

An army. A very huge army, lead by two giants. The giants were huge, it was obvious even from the height of the Argo II, and one of them seemed strangely familiar. His whole body was tattooed with waves. He tried to remember where he saw him and the memory hit him immediately, one of the scariest fights in his life. The giant was Antaeus, the son of Poseidon and Gaea.

" Oh no," he whispered, " Antaeus is back."

Annabeth and Rachel gasped when they heard that.

" The giant from the labyrinth?" Rachel asked.

" Yes." Percy nodded, " I don't recognize the second though."

Annabeth looked at the second giant. She stared at him for a few moments. Then the giant blew fire at one of his warriors.

" That's Cacus." She said.

" And Cacus is?" Percy asked, he had never heard that name before. He was used to missing out facts from mythology though.

" He's a roman giant." Annabeth grimaced on the word roman, " The son of Vulcan and Gaea. Extremely dangerous. He was killed by Hercules."

" Wow, so the Greek and Roman giants are working together too?" Leo asked.

" Apparently." Jason said as he scrutinized the army.

" I wonder where they're going." He muttered.

" Possibly Pallene." Annabeth said thoughtfully.

Now Percy was completely confused.

" What and where is Pallene?" he asked. Annabeth rolled her eyes at him.

" Honestly seaweed brain, don't you know anything?" she said in an irritated voice.

Percy smiled wryly, " I thought you would get used to that after so many years."

Annabeth smiled grudgingly, " Point taken." She said.

Then she turned to the others. " Pallene, was the base of the giants during the first giant war. I'm guessing it will be their base again. They probably have it set up in the US before they set it up in Greece. That's where Porphyrion is gathering his armies."

" Where do you think it will be in the US?" Piper asked.

Annabeth looked thoughtful for a moment.

" Florida." She decided, "that's the only place I can think of."

" Then we avoid Florida at all cost. We don't want to risk a fight with those giants on earth. I speak from experience." Percy grimaced as he remembered that fight. It was definitely not fun.

" You fought them?" Jason asked.

" I fought Antaeus alone, on his arena in the labyrinth." Percy answered.

" Dude, how is it that you have fought almost every monster we meet?" Leo demanded.

Percy smiled wryly as he remembered his past. If it was up to him, he would sit at camp and do nothing all day. Sadly he never got what he wanted.

" That's because I'm lucky like that." Percy said before turning back to the army. It was definitely not one of the best views he had seen in his life. Evil Cyclops, centaurs, earthborn, Canadian giants (he forgot their name as usual) and hellhounds.

" Lets go to sleep before we get nightmares watching this. Jason and Leo, steer the ship towards the clouds, we don't want that army to see us." Percy said.

" Aye captain" Leo snapped a salute, " I can turn on the camouflage as well. Then we'll blend in the sky."

" Good idea." Percy nodded. Then he took Annabeths hand as he walked towards his and Jason's room. There was something he needed to discuss with her.

" Annabeth," he took a deep breathe once they were alone, " What do you know about the mark of Athena?"

Annabeth opened her mouth and her face was shocked. Something told Percy this was going to be a long night.


	6. Jason VI

**Hey guys! I know I haven't updated for a while but I was busy with the new year preparations and exams so please forgive me. So, to redeem myself I wrote an extra long chapter, possibly the longest among the others. I worked hard on it and I hope you like it. I did try to address all your wishes and requests. Tell me what you think and please leave me suggestions because they really help me write (any specific ideas are welcome, I really do need help). READ & REVIEW! Enjoy :)) **

Jason didn't know what to think. Last night, he saw Annabeth walk out of his and Percy's room with a teary expression. Jason knew that it took a lot to make Annabeth cry. When he went inside the room, he saw Percy sitting on his bed. The expression on his face was full of sadness, anger and confusion. Jason had never seen Percy like that, usually he acted a bit goofy and carefree. Now he saw why Percy was a leader. Even though he looked rather sad now, the expression on his face made him look formidable and regal, like a true leader. He shared a certain likeness with Reyna when he looked serious, Jason noted. Jason didn't exactly want to bother Percy in a state like that, especially since Annabeth left the room crying but he figured it was his duty to know what bothered Percy so much.

" What's wrong?" Jason asked, " You look like you could murder someone."

Percy glared at Jason. Jason realized that Percy certainly wasn't the right demigod to mess with when he was angry. To his surprise, however, Percy didn't attack. Instead he just sighed.

" A lot of things are wrong." Percy grumbled, " This whole quest is wrong and I cant shake the feeling that we're going to get attacked soon."

Jason felt the same way and an attack was guaranteed since Leo was landing the ship tomorrow, near long island to let the campers return to camp Half-Blood until they were needed. Then the ship needed to recharge or something, Leo didn't specify, before it could switch from air travel to water travel.

" I meant what's wrong with Annabeth." Jason said.

" I'll tell you when I figure that out." Percy said and turned his back towards Jason. A pretty clear indication that he didn't want to talk.

" Well that went well." Jason grumbled under his breath as he lay down and fell asleep.

His dreams were as disjointed and messed up as ever. Then he heard a voice speaking to him. He didn't know where he was because everything was covered in fog.

" Jason." The voice repeated. He turned to find that the fog had parted to reveal Juno.

" Juno." He said, " What do you want?"

Juno gave him an amused smile, " That is no way to speak to your patron." She chastised.

Jason didn't say anything, he didn't want to start yelling at her for messing up his life and sending him on a suicidal quest.

" Jason, some unpleasant surprises await you soon. Someone you care about may vanish. But remember to always keep going ahead, never loose courage. You are the leader and the state of your warriors depends on you. You are who inspires them." Juno warned.

" I'm not the only leader!" Jason shouted, " What about Percy?" Percy was a capable warrior and leader. Surely everything didn't have to depend on Jason alone.

Juno gave Jason a look of sympathy.

" Oh yes," she said, " Percy Jackson is a most capable leader. However, he will have enough to deal with on this quest as it is. He will help you most of the time. You are meant to lead together. But a moment will come when Percy has to make a choice. Nearly everything depends on it. When Percy is at his weakest, you will have to take over to make sure that your mission doesn't fail."

" What choice does he have to make?" Jason asked.

" Later my hero." Juno said, " Beware your first fight and the red giant. Remember what I told you…"

Jason wanted to ask more but Juno's voice faded and he woke up with a start. For a while he just took in his surroundings. He was in his room, on the Argo II. Percy had already woken up and gone outside, leaving his bunk messed up. Jason tried to remember the details of his dream as he rushed on the deck to tell the others.

Nearly everyone was on the deck. Percy was staring at the sky with a thoughtful look on his face while he kept his hand around Annabeth who was leaning on him. She had black circles under her eyes and her expression was weary. Jason figured that he wasn't the only one who had interesting dreams that night. What surprised him though was that he saw Hazel standing next to Frank but staring at Leo like he came straight from her nightmares. Jason didn't remember seeing Hazel since lunch yesterday. He walked to her.

" Hazel, where were you all this time? I don't remember seeing you after lunch yesterday." Jason said.

Hazels expression tightened and paled at the same time. Frank noticed that and put his arm around her.

" I was just thinking over some things." Hazel said lamely, " I'm worried about my brother."

" Your brother?" Jason asked. Not all of his memories had come back yet. But her remembered Percy and Reyna talking about Nico during their meeting and they mentioned that he was Hazels brother.

" We'll talk about her brother and his problem while telling you about our quest." Percy said. He came over so quietly Jason didn't even notice him until he spoke.

" And when are you going to talk about your quest?" Jason asked. He was tired of waiting.

" Right now." Percy said, " Leo said we still have one hour before we land so we'll give you guys a shortened version of what happened."

Jason nodded and went over to sit next to Piper. She was the only one who didn't look like a zombie this morning. In fact she looked amazing as usual. Jason took her hand as he sat down and Piper gave him a dazzling smile.

" Morning Sparky." She said.

Jason rolled his eyes at the nickname but smiled anyway and kissed her.

" Morning to you too." He whispered.

Leo left the steering wheel and sat down next to Jason. Jason saw Thalia and Rachel walk on to the deck along with all the campers. Apparently everyone was interested in Percy's quest.

Percy took Annabeth's hand and sat up straighter,

" Before we start, I would like everyone to keep their comments to themselves until the end of the story. Including the comments concerning my intellect and sanity." He said that while looking at Annabeth. She raised an eyebrow at him.

" That bad, huh seaweed brain." She teased but Jason heard a hint of worry in her voice.

" Not that bad." Percy shook his head, " Well not that bad for me and my luck." He amended. Annabeth just sat back and glared at him.

" Well, go ahead, start." She told him.

Percy sighed and began, " I woke up at the wolf house two months ago remembering nothing but my name and Annabeth. Lupa trained me as a Roman and sent me on the journey to camp Jupiter." He said.

Jason grumbled under his breath. It was totally unfair that Percy remembered way more than he did. Jason saw Annabeth's eyes gleam when she heard the first sentence. Percy saw that and smiled reassuringly.

" During my whole trip to camp Jupiter, I was followed by two gorgons, Medusas sisters who were trying to kill me to avenge her death. They wouldn't die no matter how many times I killed them."

" You killed Medusa?" Jason asked. That was no small feat.

" Yeah, on my first quest when I was twelve."

Those who didn't know Percy just stared at him.

" Hold on, how did you survive the gorgons for so many days?" Leo demanded.

" Well, my Achilles curse helped a lot and they weren't too hard to kill until I got very tired." Percy shrugged.

" Achilles curse? You bathed in the Styx?" Frank asked perplexed, " Your invulnerable, yet you did get some cuts and bruises during the quest."

" When I crossed the Tiber river, it washed the curse away because it was a Greek blessing that could not be kept on Roman territory." Percy said.

" Aw dude, we could have totally used your iron man curse." Leo exclaimed. That got everyone laughing.

" Iron man curse?" Percy chuckled, " I'm glad to be rid of it. There was always a possibility that something would hit me in my Achilles spot, and then I would die, so better without it. Anyway, lets continue the story."

" Percy ran into camp carrying Juno disguised as an old woman…" Hazel said,

" A hippie bag lady." Percy grumbled,

" And Frank and I fought the gorgons while Percy got in. Later Percy destroyed them in the Tiber and saved Frank." Hazel finished and looked at Percy gratefully.

" Octavian put Percy in the fifth cohort. That night, during the war games, Percy helped the fifth Cohort win and kick Octavian's butt." Frank laughed and Jason smiled when he heard that Percy helped his Cohort gain glory.

" Then Mars showed up, issued the quest to Alaska and claimed me as his son." Franks face was angry as he said that.

" Our quest was to free Thanatos so that the monsters would die during battle when Polybotes attacked camp." Percy said.

" My brother, Nico Di Angelo, left to find the Doors of Death the next day." Hazels voice cracked when she said his name, " Later Gaea told me that she captured him and Thanatos said that we would find him in Rome."

" The next day, Reyna and the senate approved of the quest and since Mars said I was supposed to lead, I was made centurion. Octavian made sure that we only got a small boat and little provisions though." Frank said angrily.

" That jerk!" Annabeth exclaimed, " But at least it's a boat. You didn't have to travel over land."

" Yeah, that was my idea." Percy smiled.

" Well you learned to use that kelp inside your head after all seaweed brain." Annabeth laughed and Percy blushed.

" I do have a brain!" Percy protested.

Hazel, who was laughing as well said, " To be fair, he did do a lot during the quest and figure out most of the problems."

Percy just rolled his eyes, " Can we get on?"

" Sure," Frank laughed, " So we packed our stuff and went on the quest. Only before we went Percy had a talk with Reyna."

Jason saw as Percy glared at Frank with a look that clearly said, " I wish you had shut up about that". Jason was already interested in what happened between Percy and Reyna because from what he saw Reyna cared about him. Jason knew that winning Reyna's affection was no easy thing.

" She just wanted to talk to me about the quest and the situation at camp." Percy said quickly while he kept glaring at Frank who smiled apologetically.

" What did she say exactly?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

" I'll tell you later." Percy said with a nervous look on his face.

" So on our first stop, we fought the Karpoi, spirits of grain, and saw Polybotes army. We also met the goddess Iris." Hazel said.

" Polybotes left some basilisks near Irises shop and I fought them off with the spartus Mars gave me. I could summon him three times." Frank said.

" So Iris told us to find Phineas and he would tell us the location of Thanatos and Alcyoneus, the giant who captured him." Percy said, " We found him and the harpy Ella, who told us how to get information out of him. We found out that Thanatos was held on Hubbard glacier."

" How did you get Phineas to tell you that?" Annabeth asked curiously.

" Well Ella said that Phineas likes to gamble with big stakes about stuff he cant foresee. So I made him choose between two vials of gorgon blood. One heals the other kills. I made Gaea choose between me and the old seer. I chose wrong but Gaea changed my fate. She wants to use me as her pawn or something, so I figured she would not want me dead. And I was right." Percy said nervously.

Jason felt completely shocked. Percy was either the bravest or the stupidest person he had ever seen. Put your life in the hands of a blood-thirsty goddess that wants to kill you? That went beyond the borders of sanity. Annabeth seemed to agree with Jasons thoughts. She turned on Percy and yelled,

" Perseus Jackson! Are you completely insane? You are letting a crazy, evil, twisted goddess choose your fate? How insane is that? That has got to be your worst plan ever!"

Percy immediately went on the defensive, " I survived, didn't I? Looks like my plans make sense after all. And after drinking that gorgons blood all my memories returned within two days!"

Annabeth just fumed silently and glared at Percy.

" Percy that was really insane, even for you." Thalia shook her head, " You are such a kelp head sometimes."

Jason couldn't help agreeing with his sister.

" Hey guys, hate to interrupt your interesting banter." Jason rolled his eyes at Leo, " But we're landing in 5 minutes so can we finish this?"

" Sure," Percy said, " Long story short: We went to Seattle, got captured by the Amazons who were lead by Reyna's sister Hylla. We asked them to help camp Jupiter during the battle. Then Hazel got me and Frank out with her really fast horse Arion."

" Arion got us to Canada, near my old house. There, a bunch of cannibal giants, I think their called Laistrygonians, were waiting to eat me." Frank said, disgust written on his face.

" They wanted to eat you?" Piper asked with a horrified voice, " Why?"

" Because they thought that would make them get my family gift which is shape shifting." Frank said, " I can turn into any animal. The gift was given to my great ancestor by Poseidon and passed down through the generations."

" Cool dude, that is so awesome." Leo exclaimed, " But I still think fires better." And his hand burst into flames.

" Cut that our repair boy." Piper hit Leo in the head and he yelped,

" That hurt beauty queen." He yelled.

" Good." Piper smirked.

Jason noticed the look of panic on Franks face when he saw the fire. He had to find out what that was about later.

" So we fought them of" Percy continued, " And were flown to Alaska by a veteran of the legion. We had to leave Ella in Canada and Tyson found her later."

" In Alaska, we managed to:" Hazel started and began counting the words off her fingers, " Get attacked by Griffons twice, nearly drown in muskeg and get captured by Gaea, hide under the giant blue butt of a Hyperborean giant and get to Hubbard glacier on Arion who turned up right on time."

" Nice trip." Rachel commented.

" Hide under a giant blue butt?" Leo laughed.

" Yeah, it was that or get killed by the Griffons. But it was totally gross." Percy grimaced.

" We found Thanatos on the glacier. Unfortunately he was clad in icy chains that could only be melted by the fire of life. I have the curse of Meleager, the Argonaut, which means that my life depends on a stick. If it burns to the end, I die." Frank said sadly.

Everyone just stared at him in shock. Jason realized why he looked so panicked when he saw Leo's fire. A spark could literally kill him.

" I used my lifeline to melt the chains on Thanatos, while Hazel fought Alcyoneus and Percy fought the ghost legion."

" What ghost legion?" Annabeth asked.

" There was an expedition to Alaska from our camp in the eighties," Frank explained, " They were all killed there by the giant. Most of the camps Imperial gold weapons were lost along with the eagle standard. So Percy had to fight the ghosts of those warriors, nearly one hundred of them, who kept reforming while Thanatos was trapped."

Then he looked at Percy with respect, " He fought them the whole time. Then he grabbed the eagle standard and destroyed the glacier. He fell hundreds of feet to the ocean along with the whole legion. And he survived."

Jason felt himself growing more and more shocked. Sure he did a lot of dangerous stuff during his quest but Percy seemed to have done the unthinkable.

" Frank and I had Arion carry the giant to Canada where we killed him. He was only immortal on his home territory. Then we gathered the Imperial gold weapons and chariot and Arion carried us back to camp."

" You know, you make killing that giant sound easy." Piper said with awe.

" Franks power did help us. And he was no longer immmortal." Hazel beamed at Frank who blushed.

" When we came to camp the battle had already started." Percy continued, " The eagle standard helped kill the monsters by unleashing lightning. The Imperial gold helped arm the camp and in a while Hylla came riding to help her sister with her Amazon army. Soon most of the monsters were taken care of. Only Polybotes was left."

" Yeah just a huge, super powerful giant," Leo said sarcastically " nothing else."

Percy smiled, " I defeated Polybotes with the help of Terminus. After wounding him a few times I smashed the head of Terminus statue in the giants face. And so we won."

Percy began to blush as everyone stared at him with mouths wide open.

" You killed a giant so easily?" Jason demanded, " No sweat? And the bane of your father to?" he couldn't believe it. Enceladus nearly killed him, yet Percy defeated Polybotes easily.

" Well it wasn't easy…" Percy began but was silenced by everyone cheering.

" Dude your awesome." Leo yelled and Percy laughed. Then he turned pointedly to Annabeth,

" Comments?" he smirked.

Annabeth just glared at him, " You are just an idiot seaweed brain with an increased ego after the roman treatment. There's nothing else to say."

Percy just laughed and hugged her and Jason saw Annabeth smile.

" Guys, we're landing." Leo yelled.

" We're not landing in camp, right?" Percy asked sadly.

" No time." Leo shook his head, " We're landing close to it so that the others can get there safely." Then he lowered the plank and looked around, " Well what are you guys waiting for? Get out!"

Jason rolled his eyes at Leo but followed everyone out of the ship. He was nervous standing on the ground where Gaea could capture him. He needed something to take his mind of his worries while they were on the ground. Maybe he could practice? He looked over and saw Percy walking towards him.

" Hey, do you want to spar?" he asked, " I've never exactly tested myself against a roman one on one and it would be a great opportunity to learn each others fighting skills."

Jason didn't exactly want to fight Percy. He was afraid. There he admitted it. He was afraid to fight Percy because he looked and sounded like a really good warrior. But then he realized that everyone was staring at them and he couldn't look weak.

" Sure lets spar." Jason said, trying to hide the anxiety he felt.

Percy took out a ballpoint pen, which he uncapped. Immediately it turned into a three foot long, wickedly sharp, bronze, glowing sword. Jason felt uncomfortable just looking at it. However, he pulled out his gladius and assumed a fighting stance. Percy gave him a calculating glance and attacked.

It was like fighting a hundred swordsmen. Jason had never fought anyone this powerful in his life. Not even Krios was that strong. Then he realized that Percy fought and beat four Titans. No wonder he was stronger than Krios. Jason tried to use some of this Roman techniques, using defense instead of offense all the time but defending against Percy was nowhere near easy. He fought like a demon. Whirling and twisting and slashing at unpredictable times making Jason long for the disciplined Roman fighting ways. He let Percy push him back and tried to slash Percy in return. Percy deflected easily and narrowed his eyes. Jason tensed up to get ready for whatever trick the _graecus_ had up his sleeve. Unfortunately that didn't help. Percy began pulling back like he was moving to defense. Jason knew it had to be a trick but on the other hand he had to use the opportunity when Percy wasn't attacking to defeat him. So he followed Percy and as he got ready for the stabbing move, Percy caught his gladius on the hilt of his sword pushed down and made Jason drop it. Then he pointed his sword to Jason's heart and Jason knew that he had lost. However, instead of feeling shame, he felt proud that he lasted that long. Percy had to be one of the best swordsmen alive. The move he used was completely new to Jason. So he cracked a smile and said,

" Wow, when everyone from camp told me you were amazing, I didn't exactly believe them but now I do." Jason praised Percy who smiled and shook Jason's hand.

" I just had a lot of good teachers and practice." He said modestly.

" Impressive, I must say." A voice rumbled and the ground shook. Jason turned around to see a blood red giant, with snakes for legs, metal hair and a huge spear staring at him and Percy and laughing.

" You are indeed impressive heroes. To bad we have to kill you. But you caused us to much loss already, especially you Perseus Jackson, killing Polybotes, I will have a lot of fun torturing you."

Percy glared at the giant, " Who are you and what do you want?" he demanded.

" I am Mimas!" the giant roared, " Son of Gaea, bane of Hephaestus. And I will have the honor of killing you seven heroes shortly." He laughed.

" I don't think so red boy." Percy said.

" We'll kill you before you manage to do anything." Jason yelled at him and hefted his gladius, ready for another fight. This time he had Percy to help him. The only thing that bothered him was that they didn't have a god on their side.

Mimas looked amused with them, " Oh, I'm not going to kill you now. I'm here to pick up a certain demigod." He laughed again and the earth shook.

Mimas ran at them and as Percy and Jason got ready to attack him, Mimas changed direction and ran to Annabeth. Annabeth took out her knife and got ready to defend herself but Mimas hit her with his huge spear and Annabeth fell to the ground.

" No! Leave her alone! Attack me you freak!" Percy yelled.

" All in due time, little hero," Mimas laughed as he grabbed Annabeth and sank into the earth.

Jason just stared at the spot Annabeth was a moment ago. She was gone, possibly forever. The giants had struck their quest a huge blow. He turned around to see Piper, Leo, Frank and Hazel staring with shocked expressions similar to his. Nobody else was there, all the demigods had left for camp already. Jason realized this was what Juno was warning him about. She said he would loose someone and Annabeth got kidnapped. He wanted to kick something in anger and frustration. His reaction was nothing compared to Percy's though. Percy's face was not shocked, it was furious. Jason felt almost scared as he looked at him. Percy was glaring at the ground where Mimas disappeared.

" Why take her?" he yelled at the sky, " Take me instead!"

Then he walked to the ocean and yelled in frustration. Huge waves began to rise and the ground began to shake as Percy fell to his knees on the beach. Jason realized that Percy had to be stopped, he was unleashing his full powers and that could have really bad consequences. Piper and Hazel seemed to have realized that as well because Piper yelled,

" Percy stop! We'll find her!" unleashing her full charm speak power and the ground stopped shaking.

And Hazel made her way to Percy and put her arms around him,

" Calm down. We'll find Annabeth. I promise." She told him. Percy just looked at her with an expression full of pain and fury.

" We will find her and I will personally strangle every single giant that will try to stop me" Percy threatened, " Starting with Mimas." Then he stalked towards the ship. Everyone began to follow him.

Jason sighed inwardly. The quest has only just begun and they were already suffering badly. He wondered if he or anyone else would come back alive. He already missed Annabeth and was worried about her. What would the giants do to her and why did they kidnap Annabeth and not someone else instead? Unable to answer his own questions, he just gave the beach one long look before he headed into the ship. Next stop: Rome.


	7. Annabeth VII

**So here is the new chapter. I wanted to update sooner but I just couldn't write any faster. I promise that the next chapter will be longer and uploaded sooner. If you have any suggestions or comments please tell me. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you guys keep me writing. So READ and REVIEW. Enjoy :))**

Annabeth had a hard time gathering her thoughts. The giant hit her pretty hard and she passed out. Her brain would not let her rest though. It ran through the chain of events that led to her capture. Annabeth remembered her last long conversation with Percy, last night. He really surprised her when he asked about the mark of Athena, considering that she only found out about it last night in her dream. In her dream she was in a dark cave that led into a volcano. Her mother appeared near the cave entrance, dressed in full battle armor.

" Mother" Annabeth said when she noticed Athena. Athena looked at her daughter and her eyes looked pained.

" Annabeth," Athena began sadly, " I do not have much time but I must prepare you for your task. It is not easy but if anybody can do it, its you."

" What task?" Annabeth asked. She noticed how sad her mother looked and sounded, which meant that some kind of danger must be threatening the quest, or her specifically.

" The task of leading your demigod friends through Rome. Only you can help them find the Doors of Death. You are the specific demigod that can read the signs and look through most disguises. Unfortunately our enemies will not allow you to stay with your friends much longer."

" How am I supposed to lead them if I am taken away?" Annabeth demanded. The quest had just started yet she had to be taken away already. Who would kidnap her and how? A thousand possibilities began running through her mind.

" You have my blessing, my mark Annabeth." Athena said, " The blessing means that when your enemies will take you to Rome, you will be able to mark the road for your friends. You will be able to guide them from a distance. However, every gift comes with this price. While you try to mark a path through Rome, the power will slowly drain you of your life force."

Annabeth knew enough to understand what Athena meant. She would be slowly dying while drawing a path through Rome. Could she do it? Survive long enough to save her friends? She was afraid of the task ahead of her. Nightmares about this quest have been plaguing her for the last month.

" Will I be able to stay alive long enough to guide the others to the end?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was calm and neutral. She had come to terms with her destiny. Anger was burning in her chest though but she tried to keep it subdued. She had to lead the Romans through their own city while they wished to attack the Greeks and steal Percy.

" Time will tell. Remember if you give in to your emotions and let prejudices affect you, you will fail this quest and your duty. Keep a clear head. You are the strongest of my children currently and only you can succeed in this task." Athena said and gave her a long look before she vanished. Annabeth woke up with a feeling of dread. She would be taken away and most likely she would die.

When Percy asked her about the mark, Annabeth felt shocked. How could Percy possibly learn about the mark. It was obvious from Athena's attitude that she would tell nobody else about the mark. Yet here Percy sat, asking her about it.

" How do you know about it?" Annabeth demanded. She was hoping to stretch time before telling Percy the truth. She would lie, but her problem was that she couldn't lie to Percy. When he looked into her eyes it made her feel like he was reading her thoughts or seeing her soul.

" Never mind that, just tell me about it." Percy said. Did he honestly think that he was going to elude her question that easily?

" I'm not saying anything until you answer my question." Annabeth said. Percy gave an annoyed sigh.

" Fine," he snapped, " Ella, the harpy that I saved from Phineas has read a burnt copy of the Sibylline books, the Roman books of prophecy. During the quest she recited a prophecy, " _Wisdoms daughter walks alone, The Mark of Athena burns through Rome._" That's how I learned about it."

Annabeth had heard of the Sibylline books, yet she had never imagined that the prophecy that concerned their quest would be written in a book thousands of years ago. She would go on thinking about the implications of this realization but Percy's expectant expression brought her back to reality. She looked at Percy sadly and told him about her dream and her mothers warning. Percy kept his expression impassive during the whole conversation, like he was trying to keep it together for her sake. Annabeth though had a hard time staying collected. For the first time since the dream, she let herself realize the whole weight of her task. By the end of the conversation she began to cry because after facing so many hardships and quests and defeating a Titan army she had to go into another battle again. One that could be her last. Percy put his arms around her and stroked her hair.

" Don't worry Annabeth, I wont let anything happen to you." He reassured her and that just made Annabeth sob harder. She did not want to lose him again. After a few more minutes of sitting like that, Annabeth wiped away her tears and sat up straight. Looking Percy in the eye she said,

" No matter what happens, you have to make the right choice. Nothing or no one is more valuable than the world." Percy's eyes darkened as he heard her warning and Annabeth had a feeling that he was given this warning before.

" I will make the right choice." Percy promised, "But I will still try to keep everyone alive."

He was so loyal. Annabeth realized that was why Gaea wanted to use Percy. His loyalty would get in the way of doing what is right. So she leaned towards Percy,

" You cant keep everyone alive. Promise me that you will do everything to win this war, no matter the sacrifices."

Annabeth saw the reluctance in Percy's eyes but he finally sighed,

" Fine, I promise." He grumbled. Annabeth then smiled and kissed him.

" Goodnight Percy," she whispered before walking out of his room.

Annabeth anticipated that something would happen but even she was taken aback by the manner she was kidnapped. The giant came out of nowhere. One moment she was watching Percy and Jason spar and the next she was hit by a heavy spear. When she came around, her head throbbed and she had trouble gathering her bearings. Slowly she began looking around and felt shocked at what she saw. Annabeth was in the largest monster camp she had ever seen. The giants she had seen from the ship: Antaeus and Cacus, were there, as well as Mimas who was sitting on a throne and yelling orders. So this must be Pallene. Annabeth was lying tied up near Mimas who looked down at her and grinned.

" The daughter of Athena came around." He said. His voice shook the earth. It was actually the first time she had seen one of the more powerful children of Gaea.

" You have a lot of work to do my dear demigod." Mimas continued, " We are leaving soon and your friends will have a hard time continuing their quest without you."

Annabeth realized that Percy and the others would have left for Rome already which meant that they would get there earlier then she would.

" You're letting your enemies get to Rome earlier than you?" she demanded from the giant hoping to find answers.

Mimas laughed, " Do not worry demigod, your friends will not reach Rome earlier than us. They have a lot of challenges to face. If they survive, they will reach Rome long after us. No more questions from you."

Then he turned to Cacus and yelled, " Prepare the ships, we are leaving before sunset."

" Do we take all our forces?" Cacus asked.

" No fool." Mimas yelled, "Leave half of the force here, they will attack the two camps. Its time to kill these wretched demigods once and for all."

Annabeth caught her breath. They wanted to kill all demigods while the best protectors the camps had left on the quest. She had to warn someone about the attacks. But how? Her hands were bound and none of the gods were answering her prayers. Come on Annabeth, think! Then she remembered her knife. The giant forgot to disarm her! She had to use the knife to cut her ropes, just like she did when she and Percy were approaching the island of the Sirens in the sea of monsters. Slowly she leaned on the throne to hide her hands while she tried to wiggle the knife in her hand and cut the ropes. She was bound more tightly this time but after a long time she managed to cut her ropes. Now all she needed was to warn the camps. Considering that she only had one drachma and just one chance, she needed to warn the right person. Her first thought was Thalia but then she decided against it because Thalia was with her hunters most of the time. Then she realized who to warn. Percy. Even though he was on a quest and probably fighting for his life now, judging from Mimases warning, he still would warn both camps. He and Jason were the only people who both camps trusted. Besides Percy earned the trust of the Roman camp quite recently. They should listen to him, Reyna especially. Thinking about her made Annabeth grimace. All of a sudden she did not want to warn the Romans but then she remembered her mothers warning: Let go of all emotions. Annabeth took a deep breath and tried to empty herself of all the anger. After a few moments she finally felt more less calm. She needed to find away to create a rainbow. Should she risk a run towards the small lake that was near the border of the camp? But that would not guarantee a rainbow. After much thought she realized that there was nothing within her reach that could help her make a rainbow, nothing at all. She could wait for an opportunity but she doubted that she would have a chance to send a message then. So Annabeth decided to choose the option that was least likely to succeed but better than nothing at all. She prayed to her mother.

" Mother please, if you hear this prayer, warn Percy about the attacks. Consider this as my final wish. Just warn him." She whispered.

Of course after the prayer she received no sign but at least she did something. She decided to pass the remainder of her time by assessing the monster camp. The force gathered here was bigger than the titan army. Every kind of monster she knew was gathered, starting with hellhounds and ending with Laistrygonian giants. What surprised her was that other than Mimas there were no other major sons of Gaea. Annabeth remembered that Jason said that Porphyrion would sail for Greece so he must have taken his more powerful brethren with him.

Annabeth wanted to escape so badly but even though she was no longer bound, she could still not make it far before the monsters caught her. Even Percy would not be able to get through such an monster infested place but then again she had underestimated him sometimes. Percy could take out entire armies by himself if was motivated or angry enough. What could she do? Think, create plans and fight. However, she was nowhere near as good a fighter as Percy or Thalia. No plan would get her out of here now. Only strength. Which she did not have, especially after being knocked out quite painfully. Annabeth was so absorbed with her thoughts she did not notice what was happening until Mimas began yelling,

" I told you to keep a constant watch on her but her hands are untied! Bind her and take her to the lead ship!"

Annabeth realized that Mimas was talking about her. He noticed that she freed herself. If only she had her invisibility hat right now but the monsters have taken it from her pocket while she was knocked out. Now as they caught her, she had no hope of escaping. Her only hope was to follow through with her task and help her friends in getting rid of this evil.

The monsters dragged Annabeth to the shore and she realized that she was right about the location of Pallene. Far down the shore, she could see the lights of Miami, they were in Florida. Docked at the beach were at least twenty huge ships, designed like Greek triremes. Their sails were raised and the monsters were preparing them for the voyage. The lead ship was colored blood red, which made sense considering that it was made for Mimas. It had the gang plank lowered. One of the giants took Annabeth and carried her aboard. Then she was tied, thrown in the captains cabin and locked inside. It was dark inside the cabin and Annabeth had nothing to do. So she just leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

" Percy help me." She whispered before dozing of.


	8. Percy VIII

**Hey guys. I know you must be really angry with me for not updating for so long. In fact I'm angry with myself because of that. Unfortunately I was having a minor writers block and I had to take the SATs as well, so I was really busy. I wrote an extra long chapter in Percy's point of view, which I hope that you will like. Leave me suggestions for the next chapter, what do you think should happen? Remember to READ & REVIEW! Enjoy. :))**

Percy had to admit that even though the attack wasn't entirely unexpected it still knocked him of his feet. He let the giant take Annabeth. Annabeth! How could he have allowed his girlfriend to get kidnapped? The person he cared about most in the world and he wasn't even able to protect her. He never had good luck; he never had any luck at all. But losing your girlfriend after getting reunited with her a few days ago? That was bad luck even by his standards. When the giant took her, Percy felt like tearing the whole world apart. His vision was tinged red and if Piper and Hazel hadn't interfered he might have torn the whole beach apart without even realizing what he was doing. He usually wasn't that careless with his powers but this incident made him feel angry, desperate and frustrated at the same time. Percy had already lost Annabeth once and he didn't like it. Now the feeling was a hundred times worse. He had to be able to help her somehow.

" Percy." A voice called. Percy raised his head and saw Hazel. She was looking at him with a sorrowful expression. He wanted to tell her something but instead he just put his head into his hands. Hazel sat down next to him.

" Percy I know this is hard on you but we have to save Annabeth. The only way to save her is to go to Rome because we're all sure that's where the giants are heading."

Percy just nodded while he was thinking about saving Annabeth. He remembered how everyone told him about the huge sacrifice he had to make and that Gaea wanted to use him as her pawn. Now that she had taken Annabeth, she had complete control over him. He was becoming her pawn. Something told him that the sacrifice was associated to Annabeth. Great, just what he needed. Another life-threatening quest to save the gods butts while the people he cared about got killed in the war. Percy just wanted to strangle Gaea.

" Percy." Hazel's voice brought him back from his thoughts, " You have to steer the ship over the ocean. This is the part where your powers come in."

Percy didn't want to do anything but he knew that Hazel was right. After Annabeth was taken nearly a whole hour ago and only now everyone began getting over the shock.

Percy sighed, " I'm on it Hazel. You and the others can get some rest. I'll warn you if anything happens."

Hazel started to protest but Percy shook his head,

" I got it, Ok?"

Hazel must have understood that he wanted to be alone because she just nodded and went to warn the others. Percy walked over to the ship's steering wheel and took a deep breath. Then he willed it to get ready for the voyage. Immediately the sails raised and the ropes began to tie. The ship was ready in a matter of minutes. Percy willed it to go as fast as possible and in a few moments it was whizzing across the Atlantic. If Percy could keep this speed up, they would reach Rome in a couple of days. Assuming that nothing attacked them. Percy grimaced, knowing his luck, they would surely get attacked. However, this time they would be at sea, his home turf. He would be able to protect everyone here. He wouldn't be as powerless as he was during the attack. If only he had acted a bit faster. He should have attacked the giant immediately instead of arguing with him. Once again he had acted brilliantly. Maybe Annabeth was right to call him seaweed brain. Percy shook his head in frustration.

" Something tells me that you're still really angry." A voice said behind Percy.

Percy rolled his eyes and turned around to see Jason walking towards him.

" Why aren't you resting along with the others. I got this part. You must be tired from flying this ship for so long." Percy told him.

Jason shrugged as he sat down next to him.

" I am tired but I don't want to sleep so I decided to talk to you. We didn't really get a chance to have a proper talk since we met. It was always battles or stories or whatever. I figured you could use the company. Considering that you're beating yourself up over what happened with Annabeth."

Percy wanted to protest but figured that there was no point. Even though he didn't know Jason well, the guy resembled him a lot. There was no point in arguing with him about something they both knew was true.

" What do you want to talk about then?" Percy asked.

" A lot of things." Jason said, " Start with what happened at camp Jupiter."

" I already told the whole story. What do you want to know specifically?" Percy asked warily.

Jason looked over at the ocean and Percy saw his jaw tighten.

" Reyna." Jason finally said, " I want to know everything about what happened between you and Reyna."

Percy grimaced. He really didn't want to talk about this with Jason. Especially now when he was all depressed over Annabeth. But he figured that Jason had the right to know.

" Well nothing really happened between me and Reyna." Percy began. When Jason raised his eyebrows Percy protested, " Nothing happened! I remembered Annabeth when I woke up, I wasn't going to look at another girl."

" It's totally unfair that you got to remember something when I remembered absolutely nothing. I'm still missing memories and you remember everything." Jason complained.

" I had to drink gorgons blood and nearly die for those memories." Percy reminded him. " Anyway, Annabeth and I had met Reyna before she came to your camp. She and her sister lived on Circe's island in the Sea of Monsters. Annabeth and I released a bunch of pirates on that island who attacked all its inhabitants."

Jason looked really surprised by the news, " No wonder she never said where she came from." He mumbled.

" Reyna recognized me when she saw me. So she hated me in the beginning." Percy continued, " However, later she offered me the position as praetor because I proved myself during the war games and she thought that I resembled you as a leader. She didn't want Octavian to get the position."

Jason grimaced but nodded, " She was right to offer you the position. I'm glad that she managed to save the position for so long."

Percy was relieved that Jason hadn't asked him more about his talk with Reyna. He was pretty sure that Jason wouldn't like to hear the rest.

" So when I returned from the quest with the eagle standard and killed Polybotes, the Romans raised me on the shield and Reyna accepted me as second praetor." Percy finished.

" That's really it?" Jason asked.

" Yes it is. Reyna is just my friend." Percy said feeling a bit annoyed from repeating the same thing. Now he wanted to find out what happened to the Romans during the Titan war. He never had heard the full version.

" I guess it's my turn to ask the questions." Percy said and Jason nodded, " What did you guys do during the final battle with the Titans?"

Jason sighed, " We did a lot but it's still nothing compared to you. We thought that we won the battle and it turns out that you fought most of it. What we did was storm Mt. Othyris during August. It was protected by a lot of monsters but we took them out in a couple of days. Othyris was protected by Krios alone. Reyna and I fought him. He was quite powerful but in the end, I killed him and we broke the throne."

The Romans did contribute something to that battle at least. It wasn't their fault that the battle was in New York and not California. Yet Percy still couldn't forget how many of his friends he lost during the battle. And now he lost Annabeth. He felt the anger growing in him again.

" Percy, don't blame yourself for what happened with Annabeth." Jason said.

" Who else should I blame?" Percy asked, frustrated, " I didn't protect her even though I was expecting an attack."

" Well I doubt you expected a giant to appear out of nowhere and vanish before you could blink." Jason snapped and even though Percy tried to deny it, he knew that Jason was right.

" You're right dude." Percy sighed, " I'm just worried about Annabeth. I've lost her before and it felt horrible. Now I lost her again."

" We'll find her." Jason said confidently.

" I hope so." Percy sighed. After that they fell silent and stared at the ocean. Percy always felt better in the ocean, it made him stronger and calmer.

As they continued to sail, Percy began to feel uneasy for some reason. Like there was danger nearby. The ocean itself seemed to be telling him to beware. Percy narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the horizon but everything seemed calm.

" Jason something feels wrong." Percy said. Jason looked at him curiously,

" What do you mean? Everything looks alright. Besides this is the sea, shouldn't you feel anything if there is danger nearby?"

" That's what bothers me. I cant feel danger but I feel uneasy. Something is wrong." Percy said. At that Jason narrowed his eyes and pulled out his gladius. For a few minutes they sailed looking around and listening to any signs of danger. Nothing happened though, so Percy decided to let it pass. Something should have happened by now.

" It's probably nothing." Percy said and Jason lowered his gladius. As usual, Percy had no idea how wrong he was. Just as both he and Jason got ready to head inside, they heard a loud splash and Percy felt something huge moving towards them in the ocean.

" Warn the others that something big is attacking." Percy yelled to Jason, " And I'll hold it off."

Jason nodded and ran inside. Percy brought out Riptide and uncapped it. Holding the sword in his hands made him feel just a bit more confident. Then the monster erupted from the water. Percy had seen and fought a lot of monsters in his life. He was pretty sure that he had seen most of the Greek monsters but this thing was new. To start with, it was huge, as big as a sky scraper. It dwarfed the Argo II which was not small by any means.

It had a flat tail, like a crayfish and a segmented body with numerous pairs of arms. Its body was as thick as the ship. It had a round, poisonous green, colored eyes which brimmed with malice. The creature was plain evil and Percy understood that it would stop at nothing to kill them.

Percy racked his head as he tried to remember this thing from mythology. It was obviously a sea monster, so he should be more-less familiar with it. Then he remembered his conversation with Chiron. He had once asked him about the most powerful monsters. Chiron named Typhon and the sea monster Keto. Typhon has already been defeated and considering the size, power and intelligence of this thing, this monster must be Keto. No, not Keto but a Ketos, the largest. There were many sea monsters and Chiron called them all Ketos but only one was known as the Keto because it was the most powerful of them all. So at least he had an idea of what he was fighting, which didn't help him in any way. Trust his luck to get the strongest monster in the sea to attack them while they were searching for Annabeth. He wanted to punch something in frustration. The monster didn't move and it didn't have to. It just blocked their way and stared at the ship like it was deciding how to destroy it. Percy was staring at the monster and thinking of at least one way of killing it. He could stab it in the eye, or in the heart, if he could find it that is. Jason ran out on the deck with the others following him. However, they all stopped in their tracks when they saw what was attacking them.

" Are you kidding me? We have to fight that?" Leo said weakly as he took in the monster.

" That's the Scolopendra!" Piper exclaimed.

" The what?" Percy asked.

" The largest Ketos!" Piper said, " You're supposed to be the one who knows this stuff by the way, you're much more experienced."

Percy just grimaced, " Experience didn't help me memorize the whole Greek mythology. Annabeth's the encyclopedia. I'm the fighter. All I care about is how to kill the monster, not its history." He grumbled.

It seems that he had guessed what he was fighting correctly, which didn't help him in any way. Jason looked calmer than the others as he assessed the monster thoughtfully.

" I've fought a similar monster before." He said.

" A Ketos?" Frank asked.

Jason nodded, " I think it was called the Ethiopian Ketos. Not as large and powerful as this one but it looked the same. So I guess it's killed the same way."

" How do you kill it though?" Percy asked.

" Something must be driven through his head. Driving a huge stake through its eye might kill it."

" I'm afraid we're out of stakes." Leo grumbled.

" So we're doomed?" Frank asked.

" We're not doomed." Percy said, " We might not have a stake but I can make one from ice. The ocean will give me enough strength for that. This is our first team challenge. If we can beat this thing, there might still be hope for our quest and if we cant, well its been nice knowing you guys."

Even though they were in a deadly situation, everyone began to laugh. Percy sure knew how to lighten the mood. Percy turned to Jason,

" You fought this thing before and survived. So, you tell us how to fight it."

Jason seemed surprised that Percy gave him command but nodded.

" As soon as we attack the monster will strike back. All it's doing now is making sure we cant escape. We cant let it destroy the ship or kill us."

" I think that much was obvious." Leo mumbled and Hazel grinned.

Jason made an annoyed sound and continued, " Percy and I will attack the monster and distract it. Leo you try to steer the ship away while we fight, protect it at all costs. Frank you'll help us from the sea with your shape shifting ability. Turn into the largest sea animal you can. Piper talk to the monster. Try to get it sleepy, tired or just a bit weaker. Hazel use Arion to distract the monster even more. Ride on its back so that it will be constantly occupied. So, what do you think?"

Percy was surprised by Jason's plan. Mainly because it was so good. He had been thinking about a distraction himself. In fact he was thinking nearly the same thing. Apparently this was the only strategy which could stand a chance. If Annabeth was here, she would have come up with something much better, he thought. But Annabeth wasn't there. He couldn't let a stupid sea monster to keep him from finding her.

" Lets kill this thing." Percy said as he marched over to the edge of the ship.

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><p>Percy would like to say that the battle went well, but of course it didn't. As soon as they began attacking the monster began to rise from the water and move all of its legs which could slice them in a second. Percy wasn't giving up though. As the son of the sea god, he could read the thoughts of all sea creatures. That included monsters. So he decided to talk to the monster, find out why it was attacking them, aside from the obvious reasons.<p>

" _Why are you attacking?" _Percy asked the monster mentally. A very horrible voice answered him. By horrible he meant, deep and evil. The voice seemed to tear at his heart,

" _Because my masters told me to do so. Besides, I would not pass up a meal of delicious demigods."_ The Ketos said.

So this thing was commanded by Gaea or one of her minions. It bothered Percy that she still had so much power over them in the sea. The monster was keen on killing them all. This made Percy feel angry. No one was going to hurt his friends again, especially not some stupid sea monster.

He willed a huge wave to rise which brought him to the height of the monster. Sustaining the wave wasn't hard because the ocean filled him with power. Now he was glaring into the monsters eyes, which were as wide as him. Below him, he could see his friends fighting but it seemed like they weren't making much progress. Frank turned into a killer whale and was attacking from below, Hazel was riding on Arions back and Jason was flying towards the monsters head. Leo was trying to steer the ship away from trouble while aiming a few canons at the monster. Piper was standing on the edge of the ship just as Leo gave her a megaphone. It seemed that everything was in place. The only problem was that the monster wasn't distracted by all this action. Its arms fought separately while its head was glaring at Percy. Percy didn't exactly like to look at the things enormous mouth, which was foaming and full of razor sharp teeth.

" Attack!" he yelled to the others. And then all hell broke loose.

Piper grabbed the megaphone and began talking through it,

" Sleep, huge sea monster. Relax. We're not going to hurt you. All you have to do is close your eyes."

Percy found that concentrating on her words made him feel dizzy so he tried to ignore her as best as he could. Unfortunately, the monster didn't feel anything. All this fighting didn't even make it turn its head. It just opened its mouth and Percy realized that he had to move away before he became sea food.

" Jason hit it with lightning, aim for the mouth." Percy yelled at Jason who nodded. He froze for a moment and then brought down a huge lightning bolt from the sky with a yell. The bolt hit the monster in the mouth seconds before it was going to eat Percy. Jason fell from the sky but Hazel bolted towards him on Arion and caught him before he could drown.

Percy turned to the growling monster,

" I guess it's you and me now, ugly." And attacked.

He rose on his wave and fell exactly on the monsters head. It seemed confused by his tactic at first but it began shaking him off immediately. Luckily for Percy, Leo fired the canons at that moment and the monster stopped to growl in pain for a few moments. Which was exactly what he needed. He concentrated on the water around him and imagined it turning into a huge ice spear. Slowly, he felt the ocean obeying his will but the monster began buckling once more, weaker than before but enough to disrupt his concentration.

" Frank, you have to distract it." Percy yelled as he tried to concentrate. Before he closed his eyes, he saw Frank turn into a gryphon and land on the monsters oversized nose. Then Percy closed his eyes, and shut the world out. Drawing power from the ocean, he began willing the spear into existence. After a few moments he heard a splash and a few surprised shouts. He opened his eyes to find a spear the size of a ship floating near the monster. He willed the spear to rise into the air, which consumed a lot of his strength and then aimed it at the monsters eye. With a yell he released the spear and jumped of the monsters head.

The scream that followed seamed to shake the world. The spear passed straight through the monsters head which made the monster scream and growl in pain. Percy could feel its pain, disbelief and anguish. It wasn't dead yet though. As Percy fell into the ocean, he willed the ship to move away from the monster fast. Not a moment to soon. The monster dropped into the sea and if the ship hadn't moved it would have been crushed. Percy couldn't tell if the monster was dead yet, but he didn't want to find out. He just willed the ocean to carry him to the ship. As soon as he landed on the deck, he collapsed on the floor from weariness. He hadn't used his powers like that before and it was obvious that they consumed a lot of his energy, even when he had the ocean to help him.

" Percy are you alright?" Piper asked. Percy smiled wryly as he raised his head,

" I'm alive. Don't know if I'm alright though."

" You saved us, that was amazing, what you did." Hazel said in wonder.

Percy shook his head, " It was team work. I could have never beaten that monster without you guys."

The others smiled at him then.

" That means we can work as a team and wont be eaten by Gaea!" Leo exclaimed and this time everyone cracked up.

" Eaten by Gaea? Seriously Leo?" Piper raised her eyebrows.

" Yeah. I don't want this handsome face to be eaten by the earth momma. She can eat her own kids because their ugly." Leo said.

Everyone grinned at Leo as they shook their heads. Percy just smiled wearily as he left for his room. He had to get at least a few hours of sleep after that experience. He willed the ship to keep going at a constant pace before he just fell on his bed and passed out.

Percy hoped for a simple, dreamless sleep. As usual, he didn't get what he wanted.

In his dream he was walking through some monster camp. Well camp might be the wrong word considering that it was several times larger than Kronos's army. In the center of the infestation stood a huge, black throne and on that throne sat Mimas. Annabeth was tied up at his feat. Percy wanted to run to her or just call her but nothing seemed to work in the dream. Percy saw Annabeths lips moving as she stared at the sky. Then she leaned against the throne and closed her eyes in frustration.

" Annabeth!" he yelled but of course she didn't hear him.

" Percy Jackson." Someone said behind him. He turned around to see Athena walking toward him.

" Athena." He said trying to not sound resentful. Athena really wasn't one of his favorite gods.

" I am here to warn you on my daughters behalf. It was her final wish before her task, which I couldn't ignore." Athena said and Percy could hear the hint of sadness in her voice.

" What task?" Percy demanded.

" I cant tell you that much except that you should follow the silver path in Rome. It will be protected by many monsters but only it will help you reach your destination. As for my daughters wish. She wanted me to warn you that there is an enormous army in Pallene as you saw yourself. The giants want to attacks both of your camps with that army. You are to warn the others."

Army, Pallene? Would the catastrophes never stop? Percy couldn't be on the quest and protect the camps at the same time.

" What about Annabeth? I want to save her." Percy told Athena.

Athena looked at him and Percy could swear that he saw pity in her face,

" We'll see if that is possible in Rome. Remember Percy, Gaea wants to use you. Remember your fatal flaw. Nothing is more valuable than the world. You have to let go of all emotions if you want to make the right choice."

Before Percy could question her or protest at least, Athena vanished and he woke up with a start. To things were obvious to him: Annabeth was in grave danger and it was his fault.


	9. Jason IX

**Hey guys, I know that I hadn't been able to update for a while. Unfortunately I was suffering from writers block and had to work hard to get this chapter done. I hope it's alright. As always, I hope you enjoy it and please remember to READ & REVIEW!**

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><p>Jason would like to say that the battle went as he planned. Of course he was wrong. He had fought a monster similar to the huge Skolopendra before, so he expected himself to be the one who brought it down in the end. Instead, he ended being the one who passed out and fell into the ocean after shooting a lightning bolt at the monster. A bolt that didn't even kill it. Percy did. This was the first time Jason actually saw Percy's powers to an extent and he could feel himself getting a bit jealous. Percy was extremely powerful. For some reason, the mighty Praetor of camp Jupiter was losing his confidence. Ex-Praetor he reminded himself grimly. So he stood on the prow of the ship, fuming at the ocean silently. He didn't even realize that Frank was walking to the place he was standing. Jason sighed and turned around,<p>

"Hey Frank." Jason greeted him, "How're you holding up?"

"Just great." Frank mumbled sarcastically.

"Why aren't you resting like the others? It's my time to take watch now." Jason told him.

"I know." Frank said, "I just wanted to talk to you. I heard legends about you at camp and I never actually got to know you."

Jason turned away from him to gaze at the ocean once again. He began to realize that being in the water didn't really suit him. All he wanted to do was get on dry land or in the air. The ocean just didn't feel like his territory.

"As if there was anything special to know." He grumbled.

"What do you mean nothing special?" Frank challenged, "All I did in my life was go on one quest that nearly killed me and I already feel proud. You've done so much more and think that you're not special? Everyone respects you."

Jason sighed, he knew that Frank was saying the truth. He just wasn't in the mood to accept it.

"Thanks Frank." He said, "I'm just not used to not being the most powerful in the group or the leader."

" You are a leader. As for being most powerful, I think that you and Percy would tie in first place."

Jason looked at him incredulously, "You think we would tie? Percy beat me in sword fighting."

"So?" Frank asked looking unfazed, "Percy is very powerful but that is because he had no choice but train. From what I have heard, I'm guessing that the Greeks took on more during the last war. Percy had to fight most of his enemies, which included Titans. He became powerful from to much experience. Naturally, you two would tie because you had nearly as much experience as him."

"If you say so." Jason said and turned away.

"How about I take watch?" Frank said, "I'm next anyway and the battle didn't wear me out to much."

Jason wanted to protest but he realized that he was really tired. So he just nodded and headed to his room. Percy was asleep and snoring loudly when Jason entered the room but he was to tired to even mind. Jason just fell down on his bed and passed out, hoping for a nice dreamless sleep. Of course he didn't get what he wanted.

In his dreams he saw a throne. It looked like it was made of platinum and on that throne sat a hideous giant. One that he had seen before. Porphyrion.

Jason expected the giant to address him and threaten him. Instead Porphyrion was talking to some kind of creature in front of him. Jason recognized it as a Cyclops.

"Orders Master?" the Cyclops asked.

"You will need to carry a message to my brother Mimas." Porphyrion said, "He already has the girl which means the first part of our plan has succeeded. The heroes will be lost. He must contact the goddess at dawn tomorrow. That way we can ensure that the heroes quest will end. Everyone must be killed except Percy Jackson. Mother intends to use him. His blood will awaken the mother earth!"

The Cyclops bowed to the giant and left the room. Before Jason could analyze what he heard, the giant turned to face him.

"I'm so sorry that I kept you waiting Jason Grace. I promise that you'll make an excellent snack during our victory feast." He laughed and the whole place shook as the scene faded.

Jason woke up in cold sweat. The dream felt so real that it had to be true. Most of his dreams were prophetic. He had to warn the others about the goddess Porphyrion mentioned. Jason groaned inwardly. They fought the Skolopendra yesterday and they were all worn out. Nobody could handle another encounter with a powerful monster or goddess. They had to get to Rome as soon as possible.

It took a moment for Jason to realize that it was already morning and that Percy had left the room. Without wasting any time he ran out to the deck to tell the others the news. To his surprise nearly everyone was already gathered and looking to Percy who was standing by the wheel with a grim expression. He looked around when he heard Jason coming.

"Did I miss something?" Jason asked.

Percy grimaced like he remembered something unpleasant,

"Just some important news that you need to hear. We didn't want to wake you because you needed your sleep after yesterday."

Jason nodded as he walked up to the place Percy stood,

"So what's the big news?" He asked.

Percy sighed, "The giants are planning an attack on both camps. When Mimas took Annabeth he left for Rome with only a small part of his force. The rest is still in Pallone being trained by the other giants. They want to attack the camps while they are still weak and we are gone."

Jason felt dread as he heard the news. Camp Jupiter just fought a battle, the demigods were not ready for such a huge fight yet. Especially since the strongest demigods have left.

"How do you know this?" Jason asked Percy, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Information like that didn't just come out of nowhere.

"I had a dream." Percy said with a sad look on his face, "Athena gave me this information and told me that it was Annabeth's last request that I know this. I really don't like the last request part."

Then he turned away from everyone and just gazed at the sea with a stony expression. Jason decided that now was not the best time to bother him. However, he still needed to mention his dream. He turned to the others.

"The giants are planning an attack on us as well. I dreamed of Porphyrion. He mentioned that Gaea teamed up with another goddess who can attack us any minute. He also mentioned that Percy is going to be used as a sacrifice to awaked Gaea."

Jason glanced at Percy guiltily when he said that. Suddenly he wished that he hadn't. Percy didn't seem to have any particular reaction though. He just shrugged as if it was nothing,

"I've already been told that couple of times. There is no need to remind me every time."

"Do you know what kind of goddess is attacking?" Piper asked Jason, worried.

Jason shook his head.

"It could be a sea goddess, since we're in the ocean now. It would only make sense." Hazel said as she grimaced at the water looking slightly green. Jason decided that sailing didn't quite agree with her. Not that it agreed much with him either. It was taking all his willpower to not to throw up or bolt from the ship.

"Great, just what we need, another battle." Leo grumbled as he walked away mumbling about how nobody gave him time to fix his baby and that he would rather get eaten now than continue this stupid quest. Jason couldn't help agreeing to the last part.

Percy finally looked away from the sea,

"I have a feeling that something is going to happen today. The sea is restless." He said. Jason couldn't help noticing that he sounded morbid.

"We should warn the camps." Jason told him. Percy nodded,

"You and Piper call Chiron, I'll talk to Reyna." With that he set the wheel and left the deck.

Piper walked up to Jason.

"He's taking Annabeth's capture really badly."

"We all are." Jason reminded her.

"Not as badly as him," Piper shook her head, "He hasn't seen her for eight months and she got taken away from him already. He barely spent a week with her. He really does have bad luck."

Jason realized that she was referring to the stories they heard about Percy at camp. The only thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that Percy had no luck. Jason realized that it was completely true.

"Come on, let's call Chiron." Jason said as he and Piper went inside.

In the ship, Leo was clever enough to add a warm, salt water fountain. It was Annabeth's idea which she got from the fountain that used to be in Percy's cabin. The fountain was near the window and as soon as sunlight hit it, it created a rainbow. Perfect for Iris Messaging. Dozens of drachmas were thrown in the fountain. Jason picked one and threw the window open. The light hit the warm water and created a rainbow. Jason took a deep breath and threw the drachma in the rainbow,

"Oh Iris accept our offering and show is Chiron at Camp Half-Blood!"

The rainbow shimmered into a screen and Jason saw Chiron standing near Thalia's tree, gazing at the camp thoughtfully.

"Chiron!" Piper exclaimed.

Chiron turned to the sound of her voice and smiled when he saw them.

"Jason, Piper. I see you are alive." He said obviously pleased, "How is the quest and Percy?"

Jason didn't really want to tell Chiron that his favorite camper has been kidnapped and the other favorite is suffering from depression and anger issues. He gave Piper a pleading look which said "can you please, please do this?"

Piper grimaced when she saw the look but sighed and nodded eventually.

"Chiron we have news," She began, "And it's not all good."

Chiron's face darkened but he nodded like he had been expecting this.

"Go on." He said.

"A couple of days ago, when we landed to let the other campers out, we were attacked. A giant named Mimas came out of nowhere and kidnapped Annabeth before we even had time to react. Our best guess that she was taken to Pallene, the current giant war base which is somewhere in Florida. Mimas has already taken towards Rome and we believe that Annabeth is with him."

Jason saw that Chiron tried to maintain a neutral expression while he listened but his eyes betrayed him. He was really worried about Annabeth.

Then Piper gave Jason a look which said "You're taking this from here." And Jason sighed. He really didn't want to explain everything but Piper already mentioned the worst part. What kind of leader what he be if he couldn't even talk about his losses?

"We were attacked by a Skolopendra yesterday." Jason continued, "The largest one. We managed, well Percy managed to neutralize it temporarily but we're sure that it will come back. I also had a dream in which Porphyrion mentioned that a certain goddess will be attacking us soon. A goddess who's teamed up with Gaea. We assumed that it could be a sea goddess. Do you have any ideas?"

Chiron gazed at them thoughtfully, "It is indeed bad luck to be attacked by the Skolopendra, I'm surprised that you managed to survive. There are many goddesses who could assist Gaea. If you are looking at a sea goddess, I would think that the most plausible option would be Keto."

"Isn't Keto the other name of the largest Skolopendra?" Jason asked confused.

Chiron shook his head, "No, that is the Ketos. Keto is the goddess of all sea monsters. In fact all the Skolopendras are her children. She is the strongest sea goddess and she would be more than happy to join Gaea. She was on her side in the first giant war."

"How do we fight her?" Piper asked.

Chiron grimaced, "Her children get their powers and abilities from her. She is the strongest. Your only chance would be to distract her and wound her in the heart or head. It won't kill her but it will deter her for quite a while. She is not one of the fastest healers. You should be out of the sea by the time she heals. Of course it would be better if you don't come across her at all or get attacked by a weaker goddess. Most of the other goddesses I'm sure you can handle."

Jason nodded as he tried to remember Chiron's advice. He knew that with their luck they would be attacked by Keto. Then he scolded himself for jinxing it.

"How is Percy?" Chiron asked. Jason realized that what he meant by that question was "How is Percy taking Annabeth's disappearance."

"He's all right. Taking the whole turn of events better than expected." Piper said.

"He saved us yesterday." Jason admitted.

Chiron seemed to have noticed the slight sadness and jealousy in Jason's voice because he raised his eyebrows.

"Jason, while you are at sea, Percy will be able to protect you. He has the upper hand there. Your territory is the sky. The very fact that you are able to fight in the sea is heroic. The sea is not the best place for the children of Zeus or Jupiter."

Jason nodded as he realized that Chiron was telling the truth. He was just being stupid.

"Take care of Percy. He needs support in this situation." Chiron told him and Piper.

They both nodded, "Of course Chiron."

Jason realized that they were forgetting the most important thing,

"Chiron" he yelled, "We forgot the most important part. Mimas left Antaeus and Cacus in charge of Pallene! They are planning to attack both camps. You have to be prepared. Percy is already warning Reyna. The attack can happen any time."

Chiron's eyebrows furrowed.

"Do you know the size of the force?" he asked.

Jason shook his head, "We don't have any numbers but Percy said that it is bigger than the Titan's force. Pallene contains more monsters than all the monsters used in the last war put together."

Chiron just sighed, "I was expecting this." He muttered.

"We will do our best to prepare but remember that all hopes ride on you now. The sooner you get to Rome the better…" he wanted to continue but suddenly the ship began to shake and Jason heard yelling. That could not bode well.

Chiron glanced at them and said "Go."

Then the mist screen shattered and Jason and Piper fell to the ground as the ship shook again. They were about to get up when Leo burst into the room.

"You guys should come to the deck!" he yelled, "This is bad."

Jason and Piper jumped to their feet and ran after Leo. Whatever could make Leo look really scared and serious was not something Jason wanted to see. They ran out on the deck and saw Percy and Hazel with their swords out while Frank was standing near them with an arrow aimed ahead. Then Jason saw what was attacking them.

"Oh gods." Piper muttered.

Jason glanced at Percy and realized that this threat was more serious than the last one.

"Everyone listen up, I know how to defeat this thing." He yelled, mostly to Percy.

"Do you really, Jason Grace?" A menacing, female voice whispered and the whole ship shook again.


	10. Annabeth X

**Hey guys! So I feel terrible for delaying for such a long amount of time. I haven't written for so long that I think I might have gone rusty on my writing technique and story ideas. If that's so please forgive me. I was just too busy with finals and what not. Anyway here is the new chapter. It's not one of the best I've written but it'll do for now. Besides, it's the summer, which means I'll be able to make updates a lot more frequently. I hope you like it! and of course remember to READ & REVIEW! :))**

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><p>Annabeth slept for a long time. All the time she dreamed strange dreams that seemed to be linked to each other. Once she saw Camp Half-Blood. Only something was wrong. The place was empty and only then she realized that it was in ruins. Most of the buildings were crashed or burned down and there were pieces of torn clothes and various items scattered all over the place. A lone figure wandered through the Camp, surveying the situation. Then it went to the sea and yelled. A huge wave rose from the sea and towered over the remainders of the Camp, before crashing down on it. After a while, the water returned to it's normal position and only a few barren hills were left in the place of what was once her home. The figure took one final look at the place, turned back and headed into the sea. Annabeth wished she could have gotten a better look of who it was but her dream ended.<p>

In the next dream she saw Luke. He was just looking at her sadly, unable to say anything, but conveying emotions through his eyes. He took her hand while she whispered,

" Luke? Can you help me? Where are you?"

In response Luke just smiled sadly and put something in her hand. She was surprised to see that it was a big, golden coin resembling a drachma. Except it was something different. On one side, it had a drawing of an owl, the symbol of Athena. On the other, it had words written in two languages. Annabeth recognized them as Greek and Latin.

" What is this? When will I need it?" she tried asking Luke again. Instead he hugged her and the whole dream went dark.

Her final dream was the most troublesome of the most. She saw Percy and Jason being attacked by something horrifying. It was a monster, yet more powerful? An ancient god or goddess perhaps. That wasn't the worst part though. Instead of fighting the monster, Percy and Jason were glaring at each other and obviously arguing about something. She could make out some words,

" Your so called plan brought as nowhere!" Percy yelled at Jason.

Jason looked furious and lightning crackled around him while he yelled back, " Well how about you come up with a better plan? At least I had an idea!"

Both of them, swords in hand, looked very angry. While the being attacking them was laughing

" Fight little demigods, fight. There's no point in hiding from your doom."

Huge waves began to rise and cover the ship while Percy and Jason had actually begun fighting. The others were trying to separate them but to no avail. The monster kept on laughing and attacking the ship from time to time.

" Don't fight!" Annabeth screamed but the whole scene went dark and she woke up in cold sweat.

She was still in the captains cabin when she woke up, which was dark and dank as usual. The only difference was that she felt angry, terrified and helpless. She saw things that chilled her to the bone. If only she could get back to Percy.

She tried to sit up but remembered that she was tied up. She couldn't move or do anything. However, she did discover something interesting. There seemed to be something in her pocket. Something that she hadn't left there. All her possessions were taken away after her captivity. She couldn't see what it was now but she hoped her captors would remove the ropes from her eventually.

As if in answer to her thoughts, the ship seemed to stop. She could feel it moving because it always made her want to throw up but now the rocking seemed to have subsided. Annabeth took in a deep breath relishing the feeling. It was nice to not feel seasick anymore.

In a few minutes she heard heavy footsteps and someone opened her door. Unaccustomed to light, she had to squint to see who it was. After the glimpse of red skin though, she could have no doubts about the identity of her visitor. It was Mimas. He couldn't come inside the room because of his huge size so he kneeled in the doorway to take a good look at her.

" Did you have a good trip girl?" his growling, menacing voice mocked her.

Annabeth glared at him, " No, not really."

" Be thankful for it!" Mimas growled, " At least you're not becoming lunch as the rest of your puny demigod friends. Yet that is." He grinned with those disgusting teeth of his.

" They'll beat you." Annabeth said forcefully, hoping it was true.

" How little you know demigod." The giant laughed. " A daughter of the wisdom goddess too. We'll crush you all. First the demigods, then the Gods. And you'll help us."

" I'll never help you" Annabeth spat.

" You will if you want some of your little friends to survive." Mimas growled with laughter and walked away. Instead a Cyclops came in and took her. He carried her of the ship and dropped her on the ground.

Annabeth surveyed her surroundings. It looked like a nice place. The sea, beach sand dunes, and grassy lanes beginning beyond that. What she also noticed, was that it was dusk and the monsters were breaking camp near the sea.

" We'll begin our journey to the heart of mother earth tomorrow!" Mimas called out to the armies that were currently unloading from the ships.

Annabeth wondered where they were. In Rome? It didn't seem quite likely that they have reached it so early, yet they might have if assisted by Gaea's ancient supporters who dwelled in the sea. Just like the one who was attacking the Argo II. Annabeth hoped that was just a dream but she knew better. Demigods saw real dreams of things from the present, past and future. Percy himself had seen important visions in his dreams plenty of times.

Thinking about Percy made her stomach roll. What was the stupid seaweed brain thinking when he was fighting Jason in the middle of the attack? It was Gaea's plan all along, to let them kill each other. And as much as Annabeth disliked the Romans, and Reyna, she wanted peace to reign between them. Otherwise they would kill each other out. Just like the snow goddess Khione had told Jason. If only Hera hadn't been stupid enough to actually go through with her crazy plan. Somebody interrupted Annabeth's thoughts. The Cyclops that brought her to land earlier, took her once again and carried her to Mimas.

The giant was sitting on a large sand dune in an imitation of a thrown while glaring at his surrounding greedily, like he couldn't wait to claim everything.

The Cyclops looked at Mimas, who nodded, and cut Annabeth's ropes. Then he handed her, her cap and knife. What was happening. Monsters didn't simply help their captive demigods. Usually they ate them or killed them. Apparently Mimas wasn't done though. He brought out a golden handcuff and attached it to her right hand wrist. Nothing seemed to happen but Annabeth couldn't remove it.

" What's that thing for?" Annabeth demanded.

" For you to behave. This thing will restrict you from attacking, running away or any other unwanted behavior. Your knife and hat wont work while you're wearing this. So you are basically our slave. We will bring you to the service of the earth mother." Then Mimas began laughing his terrifying laugh as Annabeth was lead away.

Annabeth tried to learn something in the monster camp. Unfortunately for her, most of the monsters were uncooperative and wanted to eat her. The others wanted to torture her. She expected nothing less but it was worth a try anyway.

Instead she plunked down on a dune a bit farther from the monsters. She tried to run away to see what would happen and instead got dragged back to the camp by her wrist. Like a magnet attracting another magnet. She couldn't run away. Also her body became paralyzed whenever she tried to contact someone. Seemed like the damn giant had thought everything through.

Tired and miserable she gazed at the sea which reminded her of Percy. Whom she lost for the second time in 9 months. Instead of giving in to her grief, she decided to think. There had to be a way to leave. After analyzing the weather and the landscape, Annabeth came to the conclusion that they were probably in Rome. The heart of the earth mother must mean the Doors of Death, which are supposed to be located somewhere in the center of Rome. Annabeth was supposed to come along with the monsters. She was sure she wouldn't like going there. Or arriving either.

Desperate to find a solution she remembered her dream about the coin and about the object in her pocket. Now that she checked, she pulled out the exact coin from her dream. The owl had a the word "Athena" written around it. On the other side of the coin, just like in her dream, there was a sentence written in Greek and Latin.

" When in danger never forget," it began in Greek, " Who the real enemy is." It ended in Latin.

" Real helpful" Annabeth muttered. The coin should have been given to Percy and Jason who were stupid enough to fight now, not to her who was stuck in a monster camp. Maybe her mother was trying to send her some hint through this coin? Was she supposed to help the two Camps come to their senses? Didn't seem likely since she was nowhere near them. But she could guide them through Rome! If they reached the Doors of Death successfully, then Annabeth could knock some sense into them.

If they reached her with all the fighting that is. A very disgruntled Annabeth just lay back on the dune and gazed at the stars trying to find constellations before another one of her dreams took her.

This dream was brief but it spoke a lot. She saw herself. Her dream self was walking with the monsters into Rome. Mimas was marching ahead with his huge monster entourage while Annabeth shuffled along in the back. A couple of monsters were assigned to keep an eye on her just in case but they weren't paying much attention to her as they were busily growling something to each other. Annabeth was looking at the architecture, since they were looking at the ruins of ancient Rome when something caught her eye. It was a mark on the column. She stepped closer and saw the same drawing as was one the coin she now possessed. Some instinct told her to put the coin against the column. Making sure the monsters were distracted she did what her instincts told her. For a moment while she quickly hid the coin, nothing happened. Then the column began toppling. Quickly Annabeth ran forward while the column fell behind her. In her head she heard a voice,

" This marks the beginning of you real journey."

Then the monsters began rushing towards her to see the commotion and the dream faded. Annabeth woke up quite early. Most of the monsters were already walking around collecting supplies and packing. The camp was being taken apart. Only Mimas sat on his high sand dune and stared intently at a sheet of paper. He seemed to have a hard time understanding. Annabeth saw him yell something to one of the giants standing nearby. Immediately the giant cowered and ran. It took her a moment to realize that he was running towards her.

" Master to see you." He grunted at her and nearly dragged her over to Mimas who was still staring at the paper intently.

He narrowed his eyes when he saw Annabeth.

"You're a daughter of the wisdom goddess so you're supposed to understand this" he said shoving the paper into her hands.

The paper was a very detailed map of Rome marking various places for reasons Annabeth didn't understand.

" Well, can you read it?" he demanded.

" Yes." Annabeth sighed.

" Then you'll be the interpreter. Remember, try to fool us and the thing on your wrist will make sure to stop you accordingly." Mimas threatened before taking the map from Annabeth and waving her away.

Soon after that encounter, the monsters were all ready to march. Mimas, stood in the lead as he directed his army forward to find the heart of Gaea and destroy everything on his way to Rome.


	11. Percy XI

**Hey guys. Apparently I'm bad at keeping promises since I'm not updating quite as frequently as I wanted to. Oh well, at least I did get to update eventually. I hope you guys like this chapter. I think I overdid it in some way but I'll let you judge. So as always, Read & REVIEW. Enjoy :))**

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><p>Percy had been in a lot of dangerous and scary situations by now. This was probably one of the worst. Not only did he have to get into fight with one of the most powerful, ruthless and scary beings in the sea but also he had to get into an argument with Jason, right in the middle of the battle! Two leaders weren't meant for one quest. Each had his own leadership style and strategies and while he and Jason got along well enough in some cases, there were times when they wanted to strangle each other. Well that was most of the time. This was one of the times.<p>

The whole attack started when he and Leo were talking on the deck. Leo was an interesting person to talk to, probably because he did most of the talking. Also, Percy got the distinct feeling that Leo was either afraid of him or wary of him.

" You're not scared of me, are you?" he asked Leo bluntly.

" What me?" Leo grinned, " you think this awesome, fire powered hunk of a demigod is afraid of you?"

Percy raised his eyebrows, "is that a challenge?"

Instantly Leo began stammering " Well of course not. It could be if you want to but I hope you don't want to. Do you know umm… Could we talk about something else?"

Percy just grinned and turned to stare at the ocean. He had been staring at it most of the time during this trip since he had taken in it on himself to be on the deck in anticipation of a possible attack. His plan was perfect. He could sense powerful opponents quicker. Unfortunately, that also meant that he was the one who got attacked first. After making the ship maintain a constant, fast pace while sailing, fighting off the Scolopendra and wasting all his free time worrying about the camps and Annabeth, Percy didn't really have a lot of power to fight left. So when the horrific goddess Keto decided to make her appearance, Percy didn't really have it in him to resist her properly. Leo wasn't of much help either. He squeaked when he saw the attacker and ran inside. Probably to get the others.

Hazel screamed when she saw the goddess, while Frank managed to maintain some dignity by making an extremely terrified face. It was Percy's job to protect them. The ocean was his turf. Whispering "Father, help me now.", he took a deep breathe and started gathering all the power he could from the ocean. The goddess kept interfering with his efforts by constantly hitting the ship with huge waves and talking in his mind.

" You cannot win this one, son of the sea god. This is my home as well and I shall prevail." She laughed and rocked the ship. Percy could feel the power emanating from her.

The goddess looked just like her child, the Scolopendra, except her eyes were more intelligent and she had a vaguely humanoid figure. Her teeth were green fangs, her eyes yellow slits. Percy got the chills just by looking at her. He steeled his nerves and faced her.

"A sea goddess serving Gaea? Isn't that disgraceful?" he taunted her.

The goddess narrowed her yellow eyes.

" You cannot goad me demigod. The sea is my territory and earth goddess orders or not, I would still want to eat you and destroy you for your impudence."

" What impudence?" Percy yelled furiously.

" You dared sail across my dominion," the goddess cackled, " and now you shall pay the price."

At that moment she lunged and the ship began rocking dangerously. Percy redirected one of her huge waves in her direction and knocked her of course. Instead the goddess ended up hitting the waves. Before Percy could enjoy his brief victory, Keto rose with a furious expression spluttering,

" You shall die painfully, demigod!"

Exactly at that moment. When Percy was thinking of his own little plan to defeat her, Jason ran onto the deck yelling

" I know how to defeat her!"

At that moment the goddess grinned and whispered,

" Do you really, Jason Grace?"

The ship shook and all hell broke loose.

"Piper, Frank and Hazel, distract her!" Percy yelled, "Leo, go over the ships weapons. Find something that might be helpful while trying to veer the ship into a different direction!"

Then he ran towards Jason who nearly fell of the deck from the last attack. Percy pulled him to his feet while asking,

" What plan do you have?"

Jason glared at him for a moment before saying

" Chiron told me that we should either run from this thing or avoid altogether. If we are attacked by it though, which is the case now, we should hold it back for a while by distracting it and aiming for it's head or heart."

"So the same tactic as with the Scolopendra?" Percy asked.

" Basically, yes."

" This thing is the mother of the Scolopendra. She wont fall for the same tricks!" Percy yelled.

" I'm just saying what Chiron told me and what plan worked last time!" Jason yelled back.

" Barely worked!"

" Well if we had planned it more carefully." Jason grumbled while Percy narrowed his eyes.

" You were the one who helped set up and agreed with the plan." He said, " If you had something to complain about, you should have said it earlier."

" You're not supposed to be telling me what to do. I'm perfectly able to judge when and where I should say something." Jason said hotly.

" So now is the best time to discuss your issues?" Percy yelled, " In the middle of the battle? While our friends are out there, risking their lives? Perfect timing."

At this point it was obvious that they both had enough. For the first time in his life, Percy forgot all about friendship and loyalty. The ship was being attacked by Keto yet he and Jason stood facing each other, getting ready to fight. Their friends couldn't do anything because they were busy holding Keto of. So they fought.

Percy uncapped Riptide and Jason unsheathed his gladius. The next second, they clashed. Keto continued to goad them as they fought. Jason was a powerful demigod and a very good fighter. Percy knew that beforehand. He also knew that he had an advantage when it came to single combat. Especially since they were in the ocean, his home turf. Lightning flashed and the wind rose as they clashed. The ship continued to rock, threatening to drown and the monster kept laughing.

" Fight little demigods, fight." Keto laughed.

Just about when Percy had an advantage and was about to beat Jason they all heard someone scream,

"Stop!"

Piper. She put all her charm speak into that one word. Both he and Jason dropped their weapons. Even Keto stopped attacking.

" How can you two be so immature?" she yelled at them, " all our lives are at stake and you're fighting each other?"

Both Jason and Percy hung their heads guiltily. Percy had never felt more ashamed. He saw Hazel and Arion panting on the deck, Frank in a bear form lying next to them. He let them all down. He looked into Jason's eyes and saw that he felt the same. At that moment they came to a silent agreement. Get rid of the goddess first and settle their dispute later.

Jason nodded at Percy, so he picked up Riptide and glaring up at the monster yelled,

" This ends now."

Drawing his power from the ocean, Percy rose on the wave and attacked Keto in the head. She hissed and tried to swat him away but at that very same time Jason hit her with lightning and gave her a deep cut. Ichor began spilling into the ocean. Leo launched a few missiles. Keto was able to evade most of them but a couple caught her in the chest. She groaned.

" Attack her while she's weakened." Percy yelled, " Aim for the head or heart."

Frank and Jason tried to hit Keto in her chest wounds. Hazel meanwhile, with the help of Arion , was trying to blind the goddess with Percy. He was stabbing her with all his might. He couldn't summon the ice spike like last time but he did try to cut the monster as deeply as possible. A moment later the goddess let out a scream,

" This is not over demigods. I shall have my revenge. And I shall take you Percy Jackson, dead or alive. I don't care about what Gaea says."

With that she dived into the ocean and Percy felt her presence fading away. Taking a deep breathe he turned to the others.

" She's gone. At least for a while."

He received six blank stares. The first person to speak was Piper, glaring both at him and Jason she spoke forcefully,

" I demand an explanation for what happened today. We were in the middle of a bloody fight and you two just decided to attack each other? Not only did you threaten our safety by leaving us alone to deal with that horror but also you ignored the main rule of our group, which is getting along. If you two cant get along, how do you expect the camps to?"

" It's not like that the camps saw us." Jason grumbled. " Besides, our conflict isn't just about us being Greek and Roman. We're two leaders forced to lead one quest."

" Well cant you lead it together?" Hazel asked.

Percy sighed, "Not well enough, obviously."

" Why cant just one of you agree to listen to the other, so we don't have two leaders." Leo suggested.

He got a steely glare from both Percy and Jason.

" It's not that easy." Percy muttered. " Anyway, we'll resume this discussion tomorrow during a group meeting. We all need some sleep after this experience. I'll take first watch."

Then he turned his back on everyone and returned to staring at the sea.

" You should get some sleep too." He heard Leo say behind him, " I'll take first watch, this fight didn't wear me out as much as you."

Percy realized that he was too tired to argue so instead he nodded gratefully and shuffled of to his room. Without paying any attention to his surroundings he just plopped down on his bed. His thoughts were of Annabeth and where she was while drowsiness took over and he passed out.


End file.
